Shackled Wings
by Curugane
Summary: Wings, the ultimate symbol of freedom, the ability to fly away from all life's troubles and responsibilities. But can one ever leave the cage? He wouldn't earn his wings, simply receive them, but with them he would rise as far as he ever could. But he question remains: could he use those shackled wings, or would he, like everyone else, remain grounded?
1. Disclaimers, Information and Warnings

We~eell, why don't we get the disclaimer out of the way first?

 **I do not make any claim of owning Highschool DxD or any of the characters associated with the series, be they from the light novels, manga or anime. Highschool DxD is the property of Ichiei Ishibumi. If it was my property, I would have made Issei an overly attractive male who happens to be homo and have severe gynophobia for shits and giggles… or into Kenji from Katawa Shoujo, for the same reason.**

See what I did? I'm a bastard…

Why is it that I feel oddly proud about that? Still, that was time uselessly spent on writing something that only a minority is going to complain about, and especially considering FF has its own rules and regulations, meaning that I have no need to write one.

Anyway, I must say that I'm rather surprised that DxD would be the first series I put up on this site. After all, I've got several other series in my folder ranging from a few hundred word to a near ten thousand. Not much in comparison to some writers, but when considering I have about 40 different stories across 22 series it adds up.

Personally, I thought it would have been something from Bleach, Fairy Tail, Zero no Tsukaima, RWBY or Inuyasha, but I digress.

I'll begin with some information that I myself would like to know when entering a new fanfic.

First of all, this is a self-insert.

Buh-bye some potential readers.

Frankly though, as I write I obviously find it easier to relate with myself rather than some OC I thought up. Lazy perhaps, but I still think you can write good stuff as an inserter.

That may have come out wrong…

Worth mentioning though is that I'm trying to be realistic about the situation, even if it means putting myself in an unflattering light, I've no intention of making myself a sue. That being said, if you read it and you start to see indications of such, please tell me. I want this to be a story that's enjoyable to read, not one that glorify my nonexistent greatness.

Who the fuck am I kidding, I'm the greatest there is! Onto the next one!

Issei will not be the main character in this. He'll still be around, he'll serve a purpose later on in the story, but for now he'll be around to perv on the kendo girls, and perhaps the swim team when summer comes around, and be upset with the rest of the trio about my character's awesomeness. And get beat up…

Thirdly: this will be a harem… I can hear some of you groaning already and I haven't even put the damn series up on fanfiction yet, but give me a second to explain!

First of all, I want to say I agree with you. Far too often it seems like the harem is simply made up to please everyone, or to get that girl the writer likes and then keep the others as sex-slaves. Overly drastic description, perhaps, but the rest of the girls do seldom get as much time to be developed or have a relationship actually develop between the characters. And I don't simply mean the MC and the girls, but the relationships between all of the girls themselves.

It also pisses me somewhat when everybody simply seems to be fine about it without reason. So if you notice one of the girls isn't getting enough screen time or interaction, shout at me and kick my ass and I'll see what I can do to change that.

The second thing I want to say in regards to this issue is that harems fit rather well into devil society. They have been part of a long war and lost a lot of their forces thanks to it, the idea of producing more powerful devils would be a high priority, as shown with the (oh, spoilers… -_-;) arranged marriage between Rias and Raizer. They are a war-like people that can't seem to completely drop the part of their nature that dictates them to become the strongest, hence the rating games, so it's unlikely that they would drop the idea of quickly reproducing by having concubines. And judging from Venelanas wish for Rias to manage Isseis harem, it's an archaic and generally accepted practice to have them.

Thirdly; at this moment I've planned for my writing to follow canon up till season three of the anime, though I'm also reading the novels to get a better read on the world, characters and events. I'm also going to try to marry the anime and novels together to create more depth. It won't be a copy paste and things will change more drastically as we get further into it, the MC is different from Issei and will have his own reasoning, after all. Instead I will focus more on the personal relationships and the action while thinking of how to make things more original on the way there.

And that leads us to the warnings: there may be graphic descriptions of injuries (yay!), lemons (damn FAAAAAR off into the future, this isn't Issei we're talking about) and perceived character bashing.

I say perceived because I have no intention of bashing any character, but that doesn't mean that my MC can't bash them.

Wonderful loophole, huh?

Serious though, you'll know why and probably agree with it when it comes up, I've no intentions of making it sneak up on you.

In any case, I would love some constructive critique to develop my writing some more, I've every intention of returning to previous chapters later on and get my style up to snuff, just tell me what you liked and didn't like or didn't understand. It doesn't take too long to write a short review without giving solid examples or advice, and it also tells me that you like what I'm doing and makes writing more fun. A lack of response can really kill the muse for a person and make them stop writing. Authors post things here for a response and if there is none then there's no reason to write.


	2. Chapter 1

Shackled Wings

Chapter 1

Red… Everything was coloured red. Wood and leaf, stone and water, sky and cloud.

And her. The black hair that should have been shifting like a shroud in the wind had been dyed a shade of red darker than crimson.

It was all covered in the colour of blood, the life-giving liquid that was slowly flowing from the punctures in his chest.

~-o0 Two Months Earlier 0o- ~

~-o0 April 15th, Friday, 2016 0o- ~

The silent clicking that the key made upon entering the lock was barely audible over the already muffled sound of traffic and playing children four floors down. Pushing down whatever nerves that welled up, he opened the door fully, taking in the empty expanse that was the porch. In reality, it wasn't more than a couple of meters in either direction, but to him, it felt too large a distance.

And somehow, it felt final: like an admittance, one he had been refusing and pushing away.

Hesitantly, he stepped inside, looking down the short corridor that led to a medium-large room, a kitchen/dining/living room hybrid, if his memory of the floor plan served correctly. A passing glance was seldom enough to accurately remember a picture… But some packed and sealed boxes, and the back of what could have been either a sofa or an armchair was plainly visible from the entrance.

On either side of the corridor were doors, one barely a meter from the lowered porch on the right hand – _Probably a closet. –_ and one another two and a half meters in, directly bordering with the visible room. In between these, though, on the opposite wall, was another door.

Feeling very much like an intruder he kicked off his shoes and left them scattered on the clinker covered floor, taking the single upward step required to officially walk inside. There was no sound coming from the wooden floor as he made his way down the corridor, nor did it shift underneath his weight. He also noted the high ceiling, which was a good half meter above his 192 centimetres.

The living room was sufficiently large; the kitchen, which was placed directly to the left upon entering the common room, was clearly separated from the rest of the room by a high counter, by which five comfortable looking bar stools had been placed. It seemed the necessary appliances had been placed there, albeit somewhat haphazardly without anything having been plugged in. The gentle hum of the fridge immediately to the right upon entering and the illuminated display on the oven further in was the only exception to the rule, and he guessed it was the same with the dishwasher that resided under the high counter. They certainly matched the aesthetics of the kitchen, making him think they came with the apartment.

At least, he couldn't remember either having been mentioned to him when he was getting ready to leave…

The kitchen had a feeling of warmth emanating from it. Dark wood in the shade between a deep brown and red covered every space that you expected to find a cupboard or pantry, while white/dark pink tiles covered the wall between the top and bottom row. The countertop was an accentuating, reflective black, only broken by a large white envelope that was resting on it.

Ignoring that for now, his eyes strayed toward the rest of the room. It was an absolute, for lack of a better word, mess. Haphazard stacks of boxes covered the floor and towered over most, if not all, of the furniture, and he could swear he could see a gentle sway in some of them. He could only hope that the movers, without anyone here to guide their work, had merely put everything here rather than spread it out across the different rooms. If all rooms turned out looking like this, he wouldn't be too happy.

A web of growing roses and leaves covered the dark blue background that made up the wallpapers around the room, the opposite wall having windows running along its entire length with a practically camouflaged balcony door on the far left. There was another door a couple of meters away from there, and with the apartment being family friendly he could only assume it was one of the bedrooms.

Shrugging off his backpack, feeling some relief from getting the weight off his shoulders, and throwing off his jacket onto the nearby armchair, or what space that was still available with the boxes occupying it, he looked around the room. There really wasn't any indication of anyone ever having lived here, mostly because the feeling of sheer emptiness the room emanated. Ironic, considering it was literally packed full with stuff. Still, he felt like a stranger in a strangers' house… an unwelcome visitor that should have been promptly kicked out.

"Welcome home, I guess…"

There was nobody that answered the hollow words, yet to him it was as if a heavy door shut itself closed behind him, complete with the hollow echo of a long hallway. The words felt too final to him, yet came with only the slightest hint of acceptance. The circumstances may have been hated, even loathed, but there was nothing else to do but accept them.

Feeling the room get too depressing he decided to get himself busy. The lone door on the left side of the living room became the first target. Opening it, it became blatantly clear that his hopeful assumption had been correct in that it was completely empty. A good enough place as any to start unpacking the stuff, though.

"If I can get them down without causing an avalanche or world ending earthquake, that is…" Looking briefly over his shoulder, he could only sigh at what felt like an insurmountable task.

Ocean blue wallpapers with reflective red tribal designs covered the bedroom walls, giving him the feeling that he was looking at a sunrise or sunset from across the waters. The windows continued along the length of the far wall, casting its light on the tribal markings, enhancing the feeling. A quick check proved the doors opposite of the windows to be a sizable walk-in closet.

Leaving the door open, he checked the other door in the living room, revealing to him a larger carbon copy of the first bedroom, the only real difference being that the tribal designs were a golden colour instead of red.

Heading down the corridor it quickly became clear that the singular one before the kitchen led to a bathroom, a sunset-tinted and frosted glass partition separating the toilet – which also contained a washing machine and dryer– from the bathing area. Most of that space was occupied by a Jacuzzi style bathtub that he wouldn't have been surprised if it could fit six or seven people, while the sides had been set up as two showers. Beyond the overly extravagant bath, everything was as he had expected here.

The door directly by the entrance was quickly confirmed to be a closet to keep jackets and shoes, while there was a second door further in leading to a much smaller empty space to store cleaning supplies out of sight.

Exiting the narrow space, his gaze shifted toward the balcony that was barely visible beyond the papery wall of despair. With a sigh, he walked back into the common room to pick up the first batch of boxes for unpacking, selecting the larger bedroom not only as his unpacking station but also as his sleeping space.

As the hours of labour passed, three things became exceedingly clear.

He didn't recognize any of the stuff that came out of the boxes. There was no memory of the objects, no intimate knowledge of the nooks and crannies, nor understanding of the history of the things that should have been familiar. These _were not_ his, but a strangers' possessions, if even that. They held no meaning, nor memory or soul.

Surprisingly painful facts that he was desperately trying to ignore and forget.

Then it was the sheer amount of honestly stupid, absurd and sometimes plain out useless stuff that came out of some of the boxes.

What would he use eight blow-up dolls – three of which was of the male gender with a vibrator on its crotch-, ninety-three bottles of lube in various sizes– with a wide range of flavours at that-, fifteen pregnant Barbie dolls – _What in the actual fuck!?-_ , four gymnastic balls and five heavy as hell medicine balls, eighteen backscratchers, eight flyswatters with another four of the electric variety, three large hookahs with forty-two cases of tobacco, three pairs of pillows – two of which was formed like and depicted breasts while the other four followed the same formula, only with male and female unmentionables instead -, sixteen packs of diapers – disturbingly enough in both child and adult sizes-, eleven singing fishes – all singing different songs, thankfully-, a single moped wheel, seven fishing rods, four horns of some kind made into an assortment of instruments, two-hundred and eleven chopsticks, two bongs, eighty-one small beanbags, a crib and thirteen cases of – confirmed after a quick google search– quality champagne and wine for?

Oh, and let's not forget the condoms… lots and lots of condoms… He wouldn't be using those up for a while. A long, long, _looong_ , while. Even if he used up five a day over the next ten years with double or triple layers.

Or, so it seemed, anyway…

Safe sex, important stuff…

… obviously…

That was barely a third of the list, and he hadn't even finished unpacking yet!

It had gotten his mood back up, though. He found himself looking forward to the next crazy thing he was going to run into during this chore. It did present a definite problem though: where was he going to store all of this useless stuff?

Sure, there was the unused bedroom across the living room, but he intended for it to become a guest room, not a dumping site.

The last thing was the absolute cluster fuck that was inside the boxes. They were all unmarked, for one, something that made it nigh impossible to know ahead of time when to drag a box to the kitchen for unpacking. And two: there was no rhyme or reason to the way they had been packed. Some boxes were barely half full while others were bursting at the edges and had needed taping.

Also, who in their right mind puts a cappuccino machine, a fully loaded one at that, together with unprotected glass and paintings!? One wrong move on the part of the movers, or him for that matter, and two-thirds of the contents would have been unusable.

Actually, never mind that; why in the hell was the machine packed together with the rest of the randomness and not simply left it in its original package!? And why in god's name was it loaded!? Too much work to go through for a potential catastrophe that should have been avoided in any way possible.

He _did_ like cappuccino, though… so he couldn't be too mad about it in the end, and, as if by some kind of miracle, there hadn't been a single scratch on any of the glasses or paintings, either.

 _I've become too used to this, now…_

For better or worse… he couldn't tell which.

Noticing the apparent change in the outside lighting falling through the window, he put down the box in his hands and fished his phone out of the jeans and checked the time.

16:08

Too focused on the current activity, he hadn't noticed that the passage of time nor the fact that he had missed lunch. That was something his stomach was slowly starting to protest, having only had a light and early breakfast that morning and little more than water and cappuccino to fill him up since.

Glancing around the room, the difference was visible. What had been an empty room was now not only riddled with untouched, half packed and collapsed boxes – never mind the crazy corner, as he had quickly come to refer to it as, which housed all of the ridiculous objects – but it had also started to resemble an actual bedroom.

God knows he had problems getting the king-sized bed put together…

It was bigger than what he was used to, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth…

 _Well, at least in this case…_ He could feel the sweatdrop weigh heavily on the back of his head at that thought, amusing though it was. Who had helped him get the place pretty much answered the previous question, anyway.

Less amusing was the similarly sized bed that was going up in the other room, but at least he could take his time with that.

He had also managed to get several sets of clothes into the closet, though the all too respectable amount of space that was in there ensured that he would never come close to filling it up by way of healthy shopping.

Pushing the box off to the side to not be in the way – he would have to move the unpacking operation over to the other room –, he left the room and took in the fruit of his labours: fewer towers of boxes…

Maybe…?

Yes, he will go with a hesitant maybe…?

"I haven't even made a dent in this mess, have I?" He groaned out, a hand coming up to massage his eyes in a gesture of suppressed exasperation.

He _could_ see a difference, but roughly four-fifths of the evil papery creations filled with hellish tribulations were still left on this earth. The fact that he had picked boxes from random spots across the room every time, both to grab the most unstable looking ones as quickly as possible and to mix it up– an unnecessary venture to be sure, seeing the utter chaos in the room and in the boxes– definitely played a part in the illusion, though.

That said, he had a feeling that the laws of physics just didn't work correctly in this room… or apartment… whichever it was.

Heaving a tortured sigh, all energy left him. It was definitely time to stop for a while and get something to eat.

Entering the kitchen, he checked the fridge only to find it, unsurprisingly, just like his stomach: utterly empty. Having been buried in work, the thought of going to the store for groceries had wholly escaped him.

 _Wasn't there a 24-hour store by the station?_

He could have sworn he spotted one around that area, but where exactly? Regardless, it was too far away only to buy dinner, and there were more things he needed to buy than foodstuff anyway.

While on the subject, what did he need? Better question; how the hell was he supposed to get the bags back here? Not by carrying them for seventy-five minutes in 8 C:s and wind that was for sure, and definitely not over several trips. There had to be another store nearby.

Looking around, searching for something to write with and on, he noticed the envelope.

"I completely forgot about you, huh."

 _Might as well get it over with before heading out._

Producing a knife from one of the drawers in the kitchen and opening the envelope he flipped through the multiple papers inside.

 _Identification. Passport. Contract for the apartment. Phone subscription. Internet. TV. Debit card, bank information and accounting… with several zeroes too many… Wait, what is the rate for Yen and how much do things cost? Later. Kuoh academy papers and schedule. Student ID. General map of the area, thank you. Directions to school. Damn, that's far- no, wait… Fucking funny, asshat! Instructions and rules of said school. And a letter._

Deciding to run the calculations for his monthly living later, he once more picked up the knife and ripped the letter open and read through its contents.

"That solves two of my problems. No, three." He mumbled out before developing a tick mark.

 ***** _ **Like my souvenirs? Don't use them up too quickly now! ;p Don't worry about the neighbours hearing~**_ *****

Putting the offending paper, read gently, aside in a crumpled-up ball, he tilted the envelope it came from to the side, letting a pair of keys fall into his palm which he then pockets together with the debit card and, after giving it a good look over to ensure that it hadn't been made into joke article, the map. According to it, there was supposed to be a small shopping district nearby, roughly fifteen minutes on foot.

Putting on his shoes, he exited the apartment, making sure to lock the door behind him.

~-o0O0o- ~

There was a distinctly noticeable difference between the morning's chill and the afternoons sun-brought warmth, a pleasant surprise that he was well willing to enjoy by leaving his jacket off and allowing the sun to hit him as directly as possible. That the morning's winds were absent made all the difference in increasing the degrees in the air to a much more bearable level.

Now, if only mother nature could keep this kind of weather up and not decide to be a bitch, it would be perfect.

Unlikely, considering it was spring.

With the help of the map, as well as directions from a couple of people just to be on the safe side, he determined that finding his way to the shopping district in the future wouldn't be too hard.

His eyes and head swivelled back and forth in an attempt to somewhat memorise the area as he walked down the crowded street.

There was a surprisingly large variety of boutiques and stores in the area, everything from clothing stores and sports stores to music and electronic stores and even one or two antique shops, as well as the ever-important grocery store. A large arcade, a couple of karaoke huts and bowling alleys, several cafes, fast food restaurants, restaurants, dinners, bars, and gyms had also made their living in this specific area as if it was a central hub in this part of town.

And perhaps it was, the map only covered the vicinity of the apartment complex, so it wouldn't have been unexpected if it was. Though were one to look at it from how calm the neighbourhood he lived in seemed to be, one wouldn't suspect there to be such hustle and bustle nearby.

Picking out a decent and clean looking dinner, he decided that a meal was overdue.

There was a noticeable difference in the hustle and bustle of the street and that of inside the building. Obviously, the inside was calmer, but that didn't mean it was silent. With well over two-thirds of the seats occupied, there was bound to be some sound.

While the street outside was alive in the bustle of people in a hurry home, of teenagers chatting loudly about of one thing or the other, of workers beginning their early weekend with a celebratory drink while others made use of the throng to loudly hand out flyers as an advertisement for some newly opened store or other.

In here laughing friends were enjoying the end of their day and celebrating the start of the weekend, families were bickering and squabbling, teens on what seemed like dates either chatting away or sitting in half-awkward silences, searching for something to talk about. And then there were those still broiled in some kind of work, tapping away on laptops and rustling their papers and scribbling notes. All around them, waiters and waitresses move like worker ants' in-between tables and giving their services.

It was a more personal, and somehow vibrant setting than the pavement outside. The dinner felt homely-

 _Perhaps I should have bought something from a store instead…_

-and that feeling, more than anything else, really nailed home how little he fit into that picture.

Just as he was starting to contemplate leaving, he was effectively stopped in his tracks by one of the waiters who approached and led him to an unoccupied table. Left briefly alone, he had a glass of water placed in front of him together with a menu before the waiter disappeared for other business.

 _And now I'm stuck…_ A sigh made it past his lips. Resigning himself to what would likely be a somewhat uncomfortable time, he picked up the menu and browsed through the different dishes on display.

 _Never tried a meat curry before, I suppose._

With that decided, it left him with little else to do but observe the other patrons while waiting for the waiter to return.

Children who were peppering each other with peas and corn when their parents weren't looking, an office worker conversing over the phone as she ate her pasta and a pair of teens in a lovey-dovey stare off wasn't of much interest.

Well, the latter was slightly more so… now if only they would get to the damn kiss they both all too obviously wanted then it would get some darn content.

"… I'm reaching the end of my rope, I'm telling you."

 _Oooh, what do we have here?_ He almost hummed aloud at finding a metaphorical fish nibbling on his thrown-out rod.

It wasn't the loudest conversation in the room, but it seemed more interesting than the half he could hear of the talk the office worker one table yonder was currently engaged in or the loud chattering of which power ranger, or whatever the hell superpowered or so team it was part of, where the best that a couple of kids a few tables away were embroiled in.

It was a pair of siblings, as far as he could make out, where the younger brother was dating the sister's friend. Seemed that said girlfriend also was his new superior at his workplace and that she had been rather harsh on his performance at said job, which, from what he could gather, had been below what she had been expecting. Around the same time, said woman had also grown increasingly strict and distant in their relationship as well, both during and out of work from what he could gather, with bouts of sudden and intimate affection. The mixed messages left the man visibly distressed, exasperated and tired of it all.

Several assumptions and things he could get wrong, but the picture was clear enough.

Meanwhile, his sister continuously offered the same advice and, frankly half-assed, reasons for why she would act that way and that he had no reason to worry.

Eating his deliciously spiced curry, the conversation turned out to have a fair entertainment value, albeit not in a laugh-your-ass-off way. It would have been more preferable, but beggars can't be choosers.

Personally, he wasn't sure what to think of the girlfriend, the mixed responses he could gather from the pair of siblings made it hard to get an accurate read on the situation for sure. Still, he could understand the sisters reasoning – that being that the girlfriend was trying to tell him something – but he had a _hard_ time agreeing with her idea to 'just try to figure it out'. The guy had asked multiple times and had gotten no meaningful response, and trying to do the equivalent of learning an ancient African language that near nobody even knew existed, and with those few that do blatantly refusing to teach him, wouldn't be worth the effort or time.

In his mind, it was like having your friend suddenly start to speak in a foreign language that you don't even recognise, then get disappointed that you don't understand them.

Stupid, not to mention somewhat rude of said person.

Sipping his second cup of coffee, he watched the two walk out – the brothers spirit slightly heightened, even though he hadn't become any wiser on how to approach the issue - while pondering the dilemma.

Never having been in a relationship, and therefore never felt the attachment one would feel while in love, didn't make it much harder to imagine his response to the situation. That being: being very clear he didn't understand the situation and/or why she was acting as she did and get an answer. Failing that he would jump ship; either he wasn't trustworthy enough for her to share her problems with, or she didn't trust him enough to do so.

That was assuming one had worked to build up that trust, which was pretty much expected if you had a long going relationship. That being said: the issue of trust and respect was central in any relationship, and if either was absent there was no meaning behind it. It would be an instant relationship killer. Besides, respect also dictated a certain openness in the relationship, meaning that she had an equal amount of duty to bring a problem to light as he had.

A relationship wasn't built on a me, or even an we; but rather on a _US._

Two were needed to tango, and if one side didn't know the tune or steps, it would pose a grand old problem for the dancers, one where more than toes and ankles could be broken.

"Still, it would be rather nice to have that kind of problem…"

Actually, not really, but it at least assumed he had fallen for a girl that loved him.

Checking his phone, he noted that just over three hours had passed since leaving the apartment. In the end, it had been a good and enjoyable way to waste time, even if he had been apprehensive about eating here. Besides that, he had gotten a good two hours of exploration done. Enough to get the general layout of the area, at least.

Paying for the meal and coffee refill, he made his way back out on the street where the tide of people had lessened only marginally despite the rapidly encroaching darkness. Giving a close look around the area, he placed himself on the mental map he had been busy drawing and started moving back toward the apartment.

At least he hoped it was the correct direction. New and unknown areas were seldom kind to him in that regard, seemingly shifting and changing in the time between him reaching his destination and when it was time to head back. But with how distinct some of the signs in the area were, it shouldn't be too much problem.

 _Hopefully…_

Catching a glimpse of one of the grocery stores that dotted the area, he stopped.

 _Lazy I may be, but eating breakfast at a dinner would be pushing it…_

~-o0 April 16th, Saturday, 2016 0o- ~

The wafting smell of frying bacon and eggs mix with the scent of cappuccino and spread out into the common room, all the while the occasional sound of shifting papers were drowned out by the frying of the pan.

He had been lucky when it came to the things going into the kitchen, such as pans, plates and cutlery. While it wasn't fully stocked, or have all the necessities yet, there was enough there to make food and eat it. The one thing really missing to make breakfast was a toaster. Perhaps there was one in one of the boxes, but he hadn't found one in yesterdays or the morning's brief unpacking.

Thankfully, he knew how to improvise in the kitchen.

 _Thank you, V for Vendetta. Oh, and fuck you, home-ec teacher!_ _And fuck you myself while we are at it, always 2/3 done before I figure out a way to make my life easier…_

While keeping an eye on the pan on the stove, he took to categorising the papers that had been in the envelope. Legal papers and identification, school documents and everything that had to do with his economy had been placed into individual stacks, if they could even be called that, for more in-depth reviewing.

While eating, he started to crunch the numbers for his economy. The letter had confirmed what he already knew: all standing costs on his tuition were covered, but anything else such as school trips and anything else that would/could come up would be covered by himself. But while he could pretty much put aside everything that had to do with school, he was expected to pay about half of the cost when it came to anything regarding the apartment. All else was on him, and based on the rudimentary budget that he had put together… well, even with only having to pay half of the considerable rent, he really needed to find a part-time job.

Thankfully, the money he had on his account was enough to last until he had gotten used to his new environment and situation. If he lived as he would have normally he shouldn't have to worry about having economic problems for about 3 months.

Roughly. He wasn't used to counting in yen and therefore had no real experience of its value and was even less sure about the prices he should expect in stores.

Regardless of that, though, it was better to get a job as soon as possible so he could start saving up and be economically safe. It would also be of help later when he would begin repaying the debt the current setup would incur.

But before that, it was the matter of getting used to the new status quo.

 _A.K.A unpacking…_ He could only sigh as he wasted his weekend away with the menial, yet important, task…

At least he now knew he had a personal storage area in the basement, though he could only pray it was large enough.

~-o0 April 18th, Monday, 2016 0o- ~

The phone rang, its alarm a random tune altogether too cheerful for someone who lacked sleep. It wasn't the first time he had wanted to throw the unwanted noisemaker into a metal shredder, but the desire was exceptionally strong this morning.

Groaning in dismay, he shuffled around in a vain attempt to get out of the tangled blanket that made up his prison before crawling the distance necessary to reach the soon-to-be hell bound contraption.

5:15

He could only really glare at the display. The academy started 8:30 every day, but seeing as he was a transfer student he had to arrive earlier on the first day. While that was only about thirty minutes earlier at the latest, he would preferably have used that time to sleep in. Alas, specific circumstances, created by an asshole who decided to have a bit of fun at his expense, disallowed him that luxury.

With a long stretch and an equally massive yawn he made his way out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Being already naked, he quietly entered the shower, turned on the water and lathered up while decreasing the heat in increments. Once he felt himself really shiver from the cold water, he shut the valve and dried off.

Exiting the bathing area, he started on brushing his teeth.

Looking back at him from the mirror was an older teen that could have easily been passed off as someone in his younger twenties. Greyish-blue eyes under blond, slightly angled eyebrows gave him a somewhat serious look, accentuated by the glasses that seemed to melt into his features. He had short blonde hair, buzzed down to a couple of centimetres, making the barbell piercings he was wearing on the earlobes visible to the world, and a barely noticeable reddish-blonde stubble that was starting to grow in.

Spitting out the toothpaste and water he left the room, still very much naked.

The making and eating of his breakfast went by slowly as he watched the news on the TV, he had plenty of time to waste before he actually had to leave.

That said, he was trying hard not to think about the remaining boxes that dotted the room. He really didn't want to continue the irritating chore, even if only to remove them from the living room, and especially didn't want to be reminded of it this early. Still, every so often his gaze would stray from the television, stopping haltingly on a lone box or pile before returning to the scheduled program with a subdued groan.

 _It's going to rain in the afternoon, huh…_

Now that he thought about it, he didn't have an umbrella. He would have to pick that up on the way to school.

Rain and thunder were beautiful, especially when close to green nature, but getting caught in the cold spring rain without cover wasn't very far up on his list of wishes.

"Might as well get going now, it's not like I have anything better to do…"

Turning the TV off, he made his way into his bedroom and quickly dressed in the academy's uniform. Typically, this consisted of a black blazer with white accents, a white button shirt with vertical linings and a black ribbon tied around the collar, and black pants. He disregarded the ribbon, he would prefer to wear one of those fancy nooses if he had to, and left a couple of buttons open, rolling up the arms of the shirt to about half way on his lower arms and just swung the blazer across his shoulders for now.

It seemed that the dress-code wasn't overly strict, so long as you didn't go too crazy with it and so long as you could be easily identifiable as a student from Kuoh. Then again, this was Japan where modesty and conformity was a big deal. For all he knew, he was pushing it too far already.

 _Cross that bridge if I get there._

It wasn't a big deal, roll down the arms, put in a button and wear the blazer, he wouldn't whine about it. Unless they pressed the ribbon on him or enforced the removal of the barbells, he wouldn't budge on either. Besides, he could only imagine how ridiculous he would look with a ribbon.

… then again, that could very well be the very reason as to why he _should_ wear it: he was a theatre person and had been described as a 'hippie' before. What others would find embarrassing or ridiculous, he would do for laughs and giggles.

The thought passed as quickly as it came, discarded as childish. The mood wasn't there, it hadn't been for months, he wasn't seeing it returning anytime soon.

Once back in the living room he made his rounds, collecting the relevant books and documents off the coffee table and countertop respectively, putting them into a book bag he had found. It was when he picked up the map to school and gave it a closer look that he felt an irritated frown form on his face and what limited good mood he had accumulated during the morning take a nosedive.

I'm _gonna have to drag that fucking moped up from storage, aren't I?_

It was typical, soon-to-be free from doom-by-boxes, but he now had to drag a heavy ass scooter up a staircase.

He let out a frustrated groan, picked up the keys to his storage unit and stomped his way out of his apartment and down the four sets of stairs, stopping at a white metal-or-something door to unlock it, before making his way down the last set of stairs, the heavy door slamming shut behind him.

Stopping at the sound, he looked over his shoulder and up the stairs at the door, and let out a curse before taking the last three steps and rounded the imposed U-turn and down last seven steps.

The storage area was exactly as one would expect from a modern building, white plaster covering the walls and roof, lights that turned on via motion sensors and large compartments with a metal door as security.

Having already memorised the way to his unit it didn't take him more than half a minute to reach the door marked 48, the same as his apartment. Unlocking the door, he ignored the piled-up boxes that took up the majority of the space and began to try pulling the heavy vehicle out of the narrow space it had come to occupy. As if having made itself comfortable in its position, the scooter stubbornly refused to cooperate, raising his ire even more.

An anger filled tug on the handlebar showed not the futility, but rather the hazard of the action, coming in the form of a harsh displacement of one of the lower boxes and noticeable sway from everything above in that specific pile, yet he was not getting any closer to actually get the moped out.

A snarl escaped him along with a string of curses in Swedish, ending on a: "[Well, fu~uck me, isn't it! Why in the bloody hell didn't I take this piece of shit out before?!]"

Despite being of half a mind to simply throw them on the floor, he took to removing the obtrusive boxes and putting them on there as gently as his mood allowed, which didn't amount to much. At least he didn't hear anything too disconcerting as he did.

It was only a couple of minutes later that he could push the moped out of the wide door, replace the boxes and head out. Yet he stood there, staring at the last of the squares that had given him so much irritation, in a deep and serious debate on whether to use the thing to prop the door open, easing his work some, or leave it in the unit for no other reason than to spite and piss himself off when he came to said door.

It was a testament to his anger that he wasn't merely considering it, but also leaning towards doing the latter. Probably would have done it too, hadn't it been for his current time restraints.

Instead, he took a deep breath that was more akin to a sigh, in a vain attempt to calm down, put the box on the moped and led it to the staircase.

Soon, a sharp thud was heard, followed by a new string of curses ringing out, then it was coupled with the sound of a saddle getting hit in anger.

~-o0 20 Minutes Later 0o- ~

His movements were tight, and he radiated off an aura that screamed 'pissed off' as he stomped down the fourth-floor corridor back to his apartment.

Getting the moped up from storage had been anything, but smooth sailing. Its weight and cumbersome form had continuously made it hard to make it go where he wanted it to. That the staircase wasn't wide enough to allow for it to stand on a single step, enabling a somewhat easier way of getting it up and a way of resting, hadn't helped either.

The keys clicked angrily into the lock, and the door opened soundlessly. Ignoring the fact that he was still wearing shoes, he walked straight inside and started to look for his forgotten bag, finding it resting on the floor by the counter. He bends over to pick it up but stop as he notices a distinct resistance across his back while doing so.

He stands back up with a sigh, physical work always got him sweaty but only now did he actually remember that he had instinctually wiped his forehead more than once. A change of clothes, and preferably a quick shower was going to be necessary.

A quick look at the wall mounted clock told him that he was behind schedule, though he honestly couldn't bring himself to care overly much. Losing ten or fifteen minutes wouldn't make a single difference now, as far as he was concerned.

Getting the shoes off his feet, he entered the bathroom and threw his clothes in the hamper, and five-or-so minutes later he exited with wetted hair for the second time that morning. Another couple of minutes had him leaving his bedroom with a new set of the school uniform.

Swiftly putting on his jacket and swiping the bag off the floor, he walked out the door.

"Ohaiyou gozaimasu, Nilsson-san. You are up early." The male, middle-aged, voice was accompanied by the closing of the neighbour's apartment door.

He quickly reigned in his lingering anger and schooled his features, closing and locking his own door as he answered.

"Morning, Sakaki-san. Thank you again for helping me out yesterday, it sped up the process considerably. And thanks again for inviting me to dinner."

The Sakaki family lived right next door and consisted of the father, Touya, mother, Aiko and their eight-year-old daughter Kaoru. Both of them had been kind enough to help him get the unwanted and unnecessary objects down to storage. Actually, Aiko had been quite insistent on helping out once she had found him stumbling around in the hallway with a couple of boxes piled in his arms, roping her husband into it once he returned from shopping for groceries, and even more so when it came to dinner after finishing the relocating two hours later.

He had accepted her offer and let them help… _after_ he had made sure that nobody could know what was in the boxes, of course. Being seen as weird by his neighbours was not part of his plans, long term or short term.

It wasn't entirely finished yet, with about ten, fifteen boxes left, but it was a far cry from the ninety-four at the start….

… he knows it was that many, it was the number he was on when he decided to stop counting...

 _Why do I feel like the universe is mocking me?_

He couldn't for the life of him figure out how they all managed to fit into that lone, singular room… not a single clue, it was logically impossible… He really didn't know, he didn't want to know any more, nor did he want to think about it. Someone had succeeded in dividing zero as far as he was concerned, and he was quite content with that answer.

Still, he was genuinely thankful for the help the Sakaki's provided and showed that with a nod towards the older man.

Touya just chuckled as they walked into the elevator, "Well, you now know that my wife won't take no for an answer. Kaoru also seemed to really like her new playmate."

He could only shrug helplessly as he answered, successfully putting his previous mood on the backburner, if for now, at least, thankful for the distraction: "Kids have always liked me more than I've liked them. Kaoru is a cute little thing though; I couldn't even say no to that pout."

A sympathetic pat on the shoulder was the only answer. Not that he expected more, that girl had her father around her little finger. Not even Aiko seemed to have much in the way of defence against the child's charm. Woe the man who married that little munchkin.

No, seriously, woe him…

"So, why are you out so early?" The older male asked with a raised eyebrow. Instead of answering, the blonde produced the map showing the way from the apartments to Kuoh and handed it to him, glaring heatedly at the offending piece of paper the entire time.

… A couple of seconds ticked by before Touya broke down in repressed laughter, and he could only sigh, half in pain, half in frustration at what had made the man that way.

The map was complete and utter crap and the height of jackassery. It _did_ show the way, that much was true, but it was in a rather… _unorthodox_ … Yes, that's a kind enough way to put it. Unorthodox, convoluted and utterly stupid way. The lines leading to the academy never crossed, and contrary to popular belief; that was _not_ a good thing. If they did it meant he could just take a left/right instead of going in a full circle, and even if they did cross the thing was so undetailed that he could get lost if he didn't follow the darn thing down to the written letter.

Or ask for directions.

The point was: the map looked more like somebodies botched art project than an actual map, or perhaps someone's doodles while speaking on the phone. Regardless of viable comparisons, it was a prank, and being the victim of said prank meant he was far from amused.

"Huuu… I'll change my question, why are you out so late?" Touya, on the other hand, looked a little too amused about the situation…

"Had to carry the moped up from storage… and forgot my darn bag." He grumbled out before levelling a dry/irritated look, "Are you going to help me with directions that could be of any use or not?"

The man ignored both the look and the snappy way the question had been delivered, making a show of lifting his hand to his chin while putting on a contemplating expression, looking skyward for a few seconds. Touya's eyes then shifted back to him, "Are you free on Wednesday evening?"

He blinked, feeling confused at the random question

 _Laugh at me, I laugh at you._

"I'm sorry, I don't swing that way, but I do appreciate the sentiment…" He trailed off regretfully.

It visibly took the man two solids before the words made sense to him, and once they did the outcome was obvious.

"That's not what I meant, you damn brat!" The teen's hidden smile became visible at the man's outburst and annoyed glare, only growing when the man seemed to realise he had been tricked.

Sophisticated: no; but it did make him feel slightly better, which was the reason why he took every chance he got. Not like it was in his typical nature to ignore such low hanging fruit.

"Really?"

"Really! I'm talking about Kaoru! My wife and I were planning to go out to dinner for some alone time, but our regular sitter has moved from the area, and we have yet to find a replacement."

"So… you thought of me?" He asked back with some noticeable amount of incredulity, but the fruit was still hanging too low to ignore, "We met during a few hours' yesterday and had dinner, and now you entrust me with the care of your daughter. Well, if you're okay with me, then I'll try my utmost to make her happy."

"Don't make it sound as if I'm giving her hand to you, brat. Aiko and I are good judges of character – as is my daughter, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten so attached to you – so I feel I can trust you to look after her while we are out." While annoyed at the insinuation of his daughter marrying, he sounded sincere about said trust. He felt somewhat honoured about that, even if he honestly didn't consider it the smartest course of action.

Honoured, but that sure as hell didn't mean he couldn't push a bargain: "So, what do I get in exchange?"

"I'll drive you to school for a week on the road that's fastest on foot, and therefore faster on that bike of yours. Also, I will show you around the major landmarks after I get back from work. You did mention how you learned the layout of an area, after all. Wednesday being out on the latter, of course." He offered without preamble.

He made a show of thinking over it, but it was a pretty good deal regardless of how he cut it. Especially since he tended to memorise areas by creating a 3d map in his head, though that usually took time to do and was near useless once he was going to head in the opposite direction, no matter how detailed his map was. It always felt as if the area completely changed once he got turned around. And even if he did have a perfect map in his head, he tended to base his starting point, current position and where he was heading based on known landmarks, be it a specific store, a unique looking building or a statue in a park, rather than street names and numbers.

Actually, don't ask him to remember either, because he won't.

"Deal." They shook hands.

Touya led the way down to the nearby parking lot and gestured for him to enter a car.

"So, what does the wife say about this arrangement?" He asked in curiosity. He hadn't thought about that angle until now.

"She's the one who suggested it, Nilsson-san… Kaoru was _really_ thrilled about spending the evening with you." He didn't seem all too happy about that, and upon inquiry, he merely answered that 'she tried to shove us out the door directly after the suggestion was made'.

He could only give an awkward, though genuinely amused, laugh at that, he could see that happening with a crisp and clear image.

The rest of the maybe ten-minute trip was filled with light banter as he tried to memorise the way.

~-o0O0o- ~

One could almost call the river a moat, it was barely fifteen meters away from the wall surrounding the academy, and it separated the school from the homes. A bridge went over the purling waters directly outside the school gates, connecting the two sides.

From out here, there were only two words that described the academy: old and huge. For a first-timer, the distance from the entrance to the fountain could have well described as a mile long. An exaggeration to be sure, it was barely thirty or so meters in, but the scope of the visible buildings would make everything seem small, or in this case, somehow larger.

The façade was distinctly western and built in an older style. He wasn't sure how old the building itself was, but he would have guessed the style was from late 1900-century. It would fit, seeing as the school had been operating for over eighty years. Probably started as a Christian, private all-girls school.

Nowadays it didn't hold any such connection, if it ever had them, it wasn't even an all-girls school anymore. Or private. According to the pamphlet he had gotten the school had become co-ed only a couple of years ago due to lowered entry rates.

He didn't directly notice the fruit of that endeavour, however. The clear majority of the students he could see were of the fairer sex, outnumbering the boys at roughly seven to three on average according to what he was seeing. Not that he was seeing many students, being driven had ensured he had arrived well ahead of the allotted meeting time and therefore long before the first bell would sound. That said, he doubted it was any better in the university division. The ratio should logically be more even the further down the grades you got, what with the escalator system that the academy employed.

He wasn't too interested in confirming that notion, though.

That was another thing that was special about this school, it operated on an escalator system. It had a primary school covering nine years, a secondary school that covered three – at least that was the one he had picked – and a college _._ So long as ones grades remained good enough, you were guarantied a spot in the next part of your educational adventure.

The ground was surrounded by trees and greenery, with the ones at the entrance being cherry blossoms judging by the colour of the remaining flowers among the greenery and petals on the ground. Flowerbeds border the walkway and the area around the fountain, filled with rows of different coloured flowers, red, blue, yellow, purple and white being predominant. Trimmed briars with visible buds surround the fountain, high enough to be noticeable yet low enough so as to not obscure the view.

As he entered the building, he found his eyes straying, latching onto the many things that the students inevitable took as normal, and therefore for granted. It was well lit, the large windows next to and above the doors, extending all the way to the second floor, allowed for a lot of sunlight to enter during nearly all sunlit hours.

Three large chandeliers hung from the roof, their full forms would be casting their light on the area below the balcony when the days of less sunlight would inevitably come. Potted plants had been placed strategically around the hall, giving a necessary contrast of green from the dark wood, white pillars and black floor, while the walls were filled with different artwork, each probably made by some students during their time here or received as a donation from an alumni or artist.

The centrepiece, as it were, was the long range of shoe lockers, extending several meters in, well beyond the viewable scope of the second-floor balcony.

Looking up from the paper in his hand, after having switched out his shoes for the standard pair he was expected to wear indoors, he checked around the large entrance hall and adjacent corridors for any indication of where the staffroom was. Yet there were no signs as far as he could see. He could only conclude that either the people in the school were evil and therefore didn't put up any signs leading anywhere for visitors to follow, or the staffroom just didn't exist in this dimension.

 _Would certainly go a long way towards explaining the existence of teachers, nobody in their right mind would want to return to school when they didn't have to._

A small chuckle escaped him at the thought of giant floating eyeballs with tentacles teaching in class, looking troubled as the students covered behind their desks.

"N-Nilsson Kenny? Y-you are Nilsson Kenny-san, r-right."

He turned around upon hearing his name being nervously called, finding a girl in a slightly different iteration of the uniform than the rest of the girls he had seen. Where most wore a black, white accented corset and shoulder cape on top of their button shirts, she was wearing a simple black vest with grey accents. The short magenta skirt and black ribbon were the only things visible from the standard uniform. An orangey-yellow hairband adorned her head and kept the bangs of her shoulder-length brown hair out of her eyes, leaving a couple of messy bangs to frame her face while the rest of her hair fell down the sides.

She was maybe forty centimetres shorter than him, meaning she barely even reached up to his chest and had a petite build.

She was also either really nervous, shy or utterly terrified of him. She absolutely refused to look straight at him for one, only casting cursory glances his way. She was shrinking into herself, seemingly trying to make herself as small a target as possible.

"Yes, that's me." He confirmed after giving her a once over, she was pretty cute in his humble opinion.

 _Is that a requirement for entry?_

He thought back to his walk into the building, although few students were walking around, most likely due to him turning up early, and those being here probably being in a club and therefore not wandering the halls, the girls he had seen did definitively fall into the attractive category.

 _Kenji would have a complete breakdown if he went here._

It was a real struggle to keep from laughing at that thought. Then there probably was some poor idiot who thought he could get instantly popular if he entered a school with such a stilted ratio.

He wasn't going to discount human stupidity.

She made a quick bow, her voice coming out in rapid fire, "I'm Hiwatari Sayuri, Takagami-sensei asked me to look out for you."

Takagami Ryouta, he recognised the name as the name of the teacher in charge of what was to become his class.

"Something must have come in-between if he sent you out _now_ , he was supposed to meet me at the entrance in about an hour. Actually, I am just looking for the faculty office."

"Hai." She nodded, "I'm sorry, but sensei seemed to be swamped with papers." She actually looked and sounded regretful, like she was the one at fault for that. "He wanted me to take you to the teachers' office when I found you."

Kenny shrugged, and waved for her to lead the way, "I would say that's hardly your fault. Besides, as I said, I'm way earlier than what had been agreed upon."

The short trip to the office – which was on the first floor, albeit nowhere close to the actual entrance – was a silent one. He noticed Sayuri sending him tentative glances as they walked, which he mostly ignored, signing it up to shyness and curiosity on her part.

Stopping in front of a door that did nothing to distinguish itself from all the others, he watched as she gave it a couple of knocks before opening it, announcing her entrance to whoever would listen.

The room was nondescript, rows of office tables along the inner and outer wall as well as in the middle of the room. Computers, books, papers and personal items were resting upon them, some in a messier fashion than others while a few were thoroughly cleaned off. Several cabinets were placed around the room to store said papers and books. To the left, there was an opening to another room, a small rest-and-lunchroom based on what he could see from where he was standing.

"Takagami-sensei, I'm here with Nilsson Kenny-san."

Sayuri led him up to a young-looking man with styled black hair, dark blue suit pants and a purple button shirt that Kenny couldn't help but appreciate, being a sucker for the colour, as well as several piercings in his left ear. In a way, he couldn't help but wonder how the man had got a job as a teacher looking like that. It suited him, no doubt, but with Japanese idea of people looking respectable and, based upon his observation of the teachers in the room, nondescript, his style would have stuck out in any school.

And Kuoh Academy wasn't just any school.

"Thank you, Hiwatari-kun. You can go to your club now if you feel you have the time." Nodding his thanks to the leaving girl, he turned his scrutinising gaze to Kenny, taking in his appearance. After a moment, he nodded his head, satisfied with what he was seeing.

"You're early. I have heard Swedes were punctual to a point where you actually had countdowns when visiting someone." He said jokingly, leaning back in his chair with a laidback grin.

"I was sadly not allowed to bring my pet polar bear to Japan, some law about large and dangerous animals not making good pets in apartments, so I couldn't ride her here. I had to compromise and hitch a ride with my neighbour." Kenny answered in a similar tone, happy that this teacher could be joked with at least.

"You have polar bears?"

"Brown bears. A small population, though the densest in Europe from what I've heard. Personally, I would prefer to keep a pet lynx, they are _really_ hard to catch sight of in the wild."

"Hmm, you learn something new every day…" He nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on his face before seemingly snapping into teacher mode. "So, why are you so early?"

Kenny fished the map out of his pocket and handed it over to the teacher, who simply stared in confusion at the piece of paper. "What is this?"

"The map I was given, with directions for how to get here…" Kenny could only sigh.

Takagami only gave him a flat look, as if expecting a punchline to a bad joke. When none came, he could only ask whether he was serious. Seeing the pained nod, he scrutinised the paper.

"This look like a botched art project from a child," _Called it, I fucking called it!_ "do never show this to your art teacher. Ever." He advised with a grave sigh.

"Aye, aye, Sir!" He gave a mock salute. "So, is it now that I learn that you're also my art teacher and that I've ruined my future by showing you a map I didn't even draw?" Kenny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Good assumption, but no." He waved it off with an amused smile, "I teach English, my aunt is the art teacher, though, and the word fanatic does not do her justice. Trust me, she used to write rather harsh critiques after seeing my drawings as a child…" He shivered as his eyes lost focus for a few moments. He shook his head to snap out of it. "Long and short of that story: I now play music instead since she's clinically tone deaf. If asked, those are the doctor's word, not mine. In any case, burn that thing once you've memorised the way. She's a bat already, no need to give her any more ammunition." He advised before pausing. "Actually… just remind me to draw you a new one, that way you won't have to travel around half the town before coming here."

"Will do. Though I must say, you seem far more… uh, lax… then what I expected a teacher here to be." He couldn't help but ask, though Takagami just shrugged his shoulders with a conspiratorial smile.

"I practically grew up in Lancaster, I'm more Brit than Japanese in that regard. Always was a bit of a rebel, at that. The family was _insultingly_ surprised when I told them that I wanted to become a teacher. Jumping subject, how is your Japanese beyond the spoken. I have to ask since all the material is going to be in native writing."

"Non-existent."

Takagami raised an eyebrow, "Yet you speak well enough to keep a conversation going."

"My benefactor had me speak nothing but Japanese for two months before moving here. I'm a build-on learner, so long as I've sufficient understanding of the basics I can build onto that. The fact that I had enough prior knowledge of the language to make sense of a conversation, so long as I had an idea of what it was about, helped. It was only about getting the necessary experience speaking. I still have some problem with words similar to each other or exactly the same, and more advanced or complex words but that's generally no problem since I generally don't need every single detail to keep up." He made a show of shrugging as if it was nothing special while Takagami looked at him incredulously.

In reality, Kenny knew better than anyone how hard it was to go from near zero to the, as he judged it, seventy in knowledge, even if it was only in speaking. It was only due to said previous experience that he could manage to do that. A couple of years studying the language and watching lots of anime went far in this case

He continued: "As for writing and reading, even if I had memorised the characters it would have been of no use since I had nothing easy enough to read to reinforce the learning process. Can't learn how to swim without water, after all."

It was lucky that the documents he had gotten had all been written with roman letters; the papers would have been more useful as kindling if they hadn't.

"Okay…" The teacher dragged the word out as he wrote something down on paper.

"It's unusual, but definitively not the first time that an older student has transferred in with no previous knowledge of the language. I'll inform the other teachers. I can't promise they will be able to give you material written with romaji, but they will have some understanding of your situation. Meanwhile, you're going to have to learn how to write using materials from the elementary and middle school division. Your Japanese teacher will give you those and be there to help if you need it."

His homeroom teacher looked at his watch, standing up in a relaxed manner when registering the time. "Well, we still have about forty-five minutes before homeroom, so we won't have to hurry with the tour."

~-o0O0o- ~

"I'm Nilsson Kenny, I hope we'll get along." It wasn't the most exciting or innovative of introductions, he admitted, but it did its job. He didn't bother with a bow; he would only look silly doing one and chances were it would be done wrong anyway.

Looking across the classroom, he could directly see that, being a guy, and a foreigner to boot, he would be in the minority. A class of twenty, eight of which was boys. Nine now. It didn't exactly bother him, having been part of a course with four guys and nineteen girls, it was just that a couple of the guys were openly glaring at him like he was an enemy. That did take him aback somewhat.

The girls had a different, and more varied, response. While ranging from dismissive glances to blatant inquisitive stares, most were neutral to the newest addition to the class.

There were a couple of exceptions, however. The first one he recognised as Hiwatari Sayuri, still doing the gig she had going before. The second one was a somewhat messy looking girl, who lacked sleep judging by the bags under her eyes, with brown hair in braids and yellow eyes behind pink-rimmed glasses. What really caught his attention with her was the somewhat creepy, slightly amused, though overall pleased, smile that she was directing toward him while fiddling with her glasses.

A shiver travelled down his back, her gaze made him feel violated for some reason.

 _What's with that girl?!_

And why did he feel like he had too few layers of clothing on?!

"The seat in the back is yours." Takagami's instructive voice cut into his discomfort.

He didn't even have to ask 'which one'. There was no back row, only a single desk and chair right next to the windows. It was also right behind one of the guys that had, and still was, glaring at him.

 _Seriously, what's these guys' problem? This is the first time I'm here, and I'm darn ass sure that I haven't met any of them before. I would remember pissing someone off to this degree._

He had to put in some effort to not let loose another sigh, he had done that more than enough these last few days. It was irritating though, not knowing what he could have done to make someone react like this when seeing him.

The brown haired, brown eyed teens eyes were glued to him as he passed before huffing and turning away sharply. That did nothing to stop the other couple of angry stares he could feel on his back, or the curious glances, though the latter was more expected and distinctly less of a worry.

Homeroom passed by quickly enough and with minimal pain, though the guy in front of Kenny kept sending glares over his shoulder. By the end of the 'lesson', his irritation and previous anger had returned with a vengeance, being on the receiving end of said glares for no discernible reason had him just steps away from throttling the guy.

And it wasn't as if he could ignore the guy, either, he had to either look over him or lean to the side to get a good look at the board.

 _It's been years since my patience has been this short with an unknown person, but I'll be damn if this guy isn't testing it…_

But what could he do? The entire situation had him stressed out and emotionally exhausted, being rational wasn't part of the equation at the moment. _No_ , that was wrong, it would be more accurate to say that it was his logical side that was in complete control and not his emotions, though they definitively had a lot of sway over his rationality. Worse was that it was that part that had reached the conclusion that it would be in the best interest of his mood to throttle the guy.

If nothing else, it would undoubtedly allow him to release some steam.

The atmosphere in the classroom changed once the teacher left, going from the boringly calm, though with a tense undercurrent – like runners at the starting line waiting for the start shot to go off – to the actual rush that came from the hundred-meter dash toward the goal.

That was also an accurate depiction of what happened once the door to the classroom shut closed. One second he could see everyone sitting in their chairs, the next he was surrounded by an insurmountable wall of curious teenagers. He could have sworn he heard a harsh thump on the desk in front of him coupled with a pained grunt, though the sound that his stampeding classmates produced made that hard to judge.

The sound didn't stop with the stampede, though, instead continuing in the form of chatter, and being in the centre of it was far from comfortable.

 _Are these people starved for human contact?!_

They were acting like hyenas trying to steal a carcass from a group of lions and from each other. From the right, there was the expected question of where he came from, from the left; why he entered the school; from another his relationship status?

 _That's not a typical question to ask a person on the first meeting!_

"Are you here to steal all the girls?!" "Big boobs, small boobs, which do you like most?!" Came from behind, followed by a shout of pain followed by some girls pleaded apology his way.

 _The actual fuck!?_

He wasn't claustrophobic, but he was starting to feel like it. Being surrounded by people, all of which were trying to compete for his attention by asking questions shouldn't have been a problem, but it just wasn't comfortable on any level.

First of all was the extreme lack of personal space he now had, something that Swedes loved and the Japanese seemed to lack any sense of.

The second was the fact everyone was talking in each other's mouth, making the soup turn into an incomprehensible gibberish, instead of taking turns was giving him a headache, already budding from the previous irritation he had been feeling, and keeping at bay, during the last few days.

All these facts, coupled with the emotional state he had been in over the last several months and anger coming back with all the force of a mag-lev train and an inability of extracting himself from the group and find a place to cool himself down meant that it could only go one way.

His patience snapped almost audibly, and the chair rattled loudly over the racket as he stood up harshly with a furious look on his face.

"Would you all shut the hell up and speak one at the goddamn, fucking time!" He exclaimed loudly, making several of his surrounding classmates take a step or two back.

Everything became quiet, even the sounds emanating from the corridor seemed to dim, and everybody looked at him with shock, and in some cases, reproach and fear.

First day and he didn't know why some of the guys were glaring at him, but he damn well knew the faux pas that made the class avoid him after that.

And if by chance he would somehow forget it, the class, and later the school, would be well willing to remind him.

-End-

" _ **I'm trying to be realistic about the situation", he said…**_

Hey, I know it looks bad, bu-

" _ **I've no intention of making myself a sue" he said…**_

Well, that is true, but it's all an unfortunate-

 _ **Did you lie to us, Curu?**_

NO! I MEAN YES! I MEAN- (takes a deep breath to calm down) It's an unfortunate circumstance that correlates with several sue stereotypes, but I can seriously explain this.

 _ **We're listening…**_

Don't give me that look, plz?

…

OK! Ok, it was necessary setup for the future, both for the MC but also for the people that will inevitably surround him. If I tell you anymore it'll spoil things for you, so can't you guys simply trust me on my judgement as the author?

 _ **No…**_

That… actually hurt a bit… TT

 _ **Get your ass back to writing chapter two…**_

ok… but between studies and my on/off interest, it could take a while…

 _ **Don't care, get your ass back to writing…**_

ok.

 **And there you have it folks, chapter one finished. As said in my doodles above, I'm going to be starting school just after this chapter comes up, and while I've gotten started on chapter 2 some time ago it's at the point of writing this (2016-08-15) not even 2000 words long and going slow. I'll keep trudging on with it, but it might take a while before it gets passed my standards.**

 **As stated earlier, leave a review and tell me what you thought. Even if you think the story is stupid, or you feel silly and have nothing but 'obvious' things to tell, it shows support and active interest in what I'm doing and can only make me happy. It's better feedback to me than the follow and favourite counter.**

 **Also; for those who may decide to drop it, now or later, and decide to tell me that you do, do please inform me as to why you made that decision. As sad as I would be to see someone go, the knowledge of why can only help me.**

 **Unless, of course. you're a flamer, whereupon I ask you to be original. That I'm a fucking cow cunt licker and that I should commit suicide by pissing on a wasp nest – I hate wasps, btw – may sound great on paper, but you just come across as a ranting child. At least plan it out, why not write an insulting letter as one would expect during Victorian era Britain. Or perhaps in your first tongue, together with a 'written in French, moose cunt', as an example, for it so that I have to use google translate?**

 **I feel I invited trouble with that last paragraph… But, oh well. I'll see you guys in the next chapter.**

 **The wordcount for this chapter: 11 225**

 **Wordcount after clean-up and refining the writing: 11 882**


	3. Chapter 2

Rivulets of cool water poured down Kenny's aching frame, somewhat soothing his tensed-up muscles while cooling off his radiating heat.

The first day of his new school life had passed, and how did it go?

Horrendous. Absolutely… horrendous.

And he was pissed because of it, not with his classmates, but with himself for his outburst. People had understandably left him alone after that, which hadn't been entirely unexpected, really. That being said, once the third period had rolled around, he had addressed everyone and apologised.

It was something Kenny was proud of when it came to himself, he knew where to place the blame and responsibility. Thanks to that he knew when he was in the wrong and/or pushed his problems or negative emotions on others that were uninvolved or didn't deserve it, and he was man enough to own up to that and apologise when it happened.

His apology had been well received, if tentatively so. That said, the damage had been done. Perhaps it was because he hadn't gone into detail as to why he was feeling the way he had, but few dared or were willing to approach him afterwards. He guessed it was half out respect for the fact that he was in a foul mood, though the other half simply feared to be on the receiving end of another potential outburst.

Worse was the budding gossip, or warnings, about how the new student in class D was a short-tempered and potentially violent delinquent to watch out for. He could easily see that taking root outside the classroom.

It was saddening how he couldn't refute the first part, though. He had lost his temper uncharacteristically fast, for one. He had his reasons for that, but it shocked even him just how quickly it had happened, and it horrified him just how little it took for it to happen. He was opinionated, that much was true, but not prone to sudden bursts of anger. Though, he could keep telling others that until he turned blue. The fact was that he had lost it, and done so in one of the most spectacular ways possible, regardless of how uncharacteristic an occurrence it was. Worse again, and while he hated to admit it, he still had a rather short fuse, wetted though it may be after the day's happenings.

So, angry and disappointed with himself, he had marched back to that apartment, packed a small bag he had found with a change of clothes and a towel and gone out to the nearest gym in a hollow attempt to get rid of at least some of his pent-up frustration.

He was tired, his body was shaking and in pain, but it had had little effect on his mood. In fact, it may well have aggravated it further. Perhaps it was the lack of adrenalin, purged from the system hours ago, but the fact that he couldn't push himself beyond his meagre limits while angry didn't sit well with him. Regardless of his own performance in the gym – or lack thereof, if he had any say in what to call it -, Kenny was still pissed at himself and at the situation and at the world in general. If it hadn't been for the fact that his body wouldn't have been able to take any more punishment, then he would have gone another round with the machines. Instead, one of the staff members, presumably called by some worried person in the gym, had to help him out of the hall and into the changing room since his legs resolutely refused to carry him. It was only after a long rest that he had managed to get his breathing back under control and gotten back onto his treacherous, shaking legs by himself and, with the help of the walls, somehow stumbled his way into one of the shower stalls.

That had been ten minutes ago, and he was still going through every curse word he could think of in the languages he had any kind of knowledge in. He was also taking his time in contemplating bashing his head in on the tile wall. He was already leaning forward against the wall so it wouldn't have taken much to simply rear back and let fly. Alas, a headache would do even less to improve his current disposition.

That knowledge just barely stopped him from doing so. _Barely_ being the keyword, it was still an all too attractive course of action. He would have to settle for the impressive image of the moon crashing into the planet instead… and tortured children, lots of them…

 _At least the glaring stopped…_

For the most part, at least, but it was the one singular ray of light on an otherwise lousy day. Nobody dared to look at him the wrong way now, at least when they thought he was watching or paying attention to them. The whispering also fell into this category. Understandable, considering he was the tallest one in class, if not in the school, with a broad physique. He could do a lot of damage to a person if he put his mind to it.

He generally didn't, but, again, he typically didn't lose his patience to the point of snapping at people who had nothing to do with his problems. Even so, being called a violent delinquent was frustrating, enough so that when he was told he had felt most of the anger, which had all too quickly left him and been replaced with shame after his outburst, return.

The girl that told him the specifics of the gossip had been quick to take a couple of steps back once she noticed him becoming angry again, but had given a wry smile at the impromptu language lesson that followed.

… at least he didn't blow up… or raise his voice beyond just below normal speaking volume…

He heaved a heavy sigh, again.

 _Too many times, far too many now._

He couldn't help but feel that coming to this town had been nothing short of a mistake, that going to any town and attend a school there would have been a mistake. First day and he was confident of that. He was in it now though, so he had no choice but let things run its course.

Or quit, but that wasn't much of an option now.

Turning off the water, he stepped out of the cubicle while supporting himself on its walls. The shower room was empty and bereft of life, and no sounds made themselves prevalent from the adjacent changing room. His legs were still shaking a bit in protest, not enough to strictly be a problem, but enough to warrant whatever extra support the walls and surrounding objects could provide, if only to be on the safe side.

Picking up his towel and drying off, he tied it around his waist and walked out to get changed. Kenny had gotten out of his school uniform upon arriving at his apartment – it felt too stuffy, to begin with, and he didn't doubt that he was going to associate the damned thing with his outburst –, changing into a pair of baggie blue jeans, a black t-shirt with a dark blue print of a bear's head under a grey hoodie. The same clothes he was currently changing back into.

Swinging the bag across his shoulder, he slowly made his way out of the building, lightly tossing the locker key to the person manning the counter as he passes, barely noticing the frustrated glance the worker threw him after barely catching it. But as he reached the entrance he abruptly stopped, feeling a brand-new wave of irritation fall over him.

 _Of course, I would forget about that, it's so bloody,_ _ **goddamn, fucking typical!**_

There was a steady patter on the pavement outside, people walking to wherever under a grey sky with umbrellas above their heads. Having been driven to the academy meant he hadn't gotten to buy one for himself, and with his mind high up among the clouds of anger and frustration he had completely forgotten about the morning's forecast.

 _Sure… I hope I'm tight for whoever is_ _ **fucking with me!**_ _Would be such a shame otherwise…_

Grumbling silently about blonde stupidity being a real thing, and taking another minute to decide against turning around and return to destroying his body, he exited out into the natural shower. It was far from raining cats and dogs, but it was enough to ensure he wouldn't be anything resembling dry by the time he reached his apartment.

Unlocking the moped, Kenny made a quick trip to the grocery store to get an umbrella, not that he was going to be able to use it on the bike even if he felt like it, as well as a couple of other necessities he had yet to acquire, before speeding back to the apartment.

…

…

…

 _I fucking missed something important in that shop, didn't I?!_

~-o0O0o- ~

It was meant to spite him, plain and simple. Like everything else in the world, now that he thought about it. And spite him it did, more than should have ever been possible. In hindsight, it was very much expected. A little over half a month had passed since the new school year had begun and as a recent transfer, not mentioning foreigner, he had a lot of catching up to do.

Roughly ten years of writing experience being by far the most obvious…

Still, the answer to how a pile of inanimate objects could be so blatantly mocking him was a right mystery. Even lacking an answer, his homework had succeeded in making the impossible possible. He was tracing shapes in the written words on the papers and in the books, shapes that from the kanji, hiragana and katakana symbols made up a smile of mocking glee. It was as if his pain was the greatest joy to be found in the world.

 _Should I just ignore the fact that I ever got these…?_

It was a tempting idea, one with the beautiful voice of a siren entrancing him to listen and obey. And, why shouldn't he? He would understand the material if he just paid attention in class, and if that wasn't enough, then there was still the internet.

Wikipedia; why art thou so wonderful, yet potentially inaccurate in thy facts…?

 _Oh, yeah, because idiots with far too much time on their hands and a stupendous belief that they hold the answers are allowed to edit any page on the site instead of, let's see, professionals in the specific area being discussed._

How _could_ he forget about that little fact…?

Still, he shouldn't need to waste time on deciphering these squiggles the natives considered writing with such modern technologies as computers and phones able to surf the web.

Speaking of technology, what was the name of that documentary he thought about watching some time ago? It was something about the American Revolution as seen from the British point of view. The one with several episodes…

 _Damnit, what was it called again?_

He shook his head harshly in a shallow attempt to get his mind back to the papers wrapped in an unhealthy amount deadening boredom in front of him. The basic forms of hiragana were all written up in neat downward rows, forty-six characters that he needed to memorise post haste. Then another twenty-five characters that were perfect copies of the basic ones but with a couple of dots and quick dashes extra on them that changed the sound and pronunciation, add then another three different characters behind the basic ones and they once again change their darn pronunciation and meaning.

So, 2(46*4) +4-10 equals roughly 362 written characters that symbolise pronunciation to learn across two _basic_ writing systems.

He may be wrong on that, and probably was, but he had enjoyed sitting down and counting up a number that served no other purpose than to dissuade him from studying more than the actual studying itself. And that was considering that math was his most hated subject, and could have been wrong about his calculations…

He probably was, but since God loathed him, the Devil had abandoned him and the cosmos itself was busily conspiring against him, he couldn't find himself giving a shit.

 _Actually…_

He flipped the bird towards the potential spirits that were very likely to be sitting on a couch facing the corner of the room and jeering at him, probably much enjoying the continuing comedy that was his life.

Back to his all too impressive math skills; the other count he did made him reach the number 210, but the former sounded far more looming and had therefore settled in his mind better. Neither helped his need to study nor alleviate his wish to get away from the accursed thing. And thinking about kanji was viable to make him commit suicide…

Now _there_ was an idea, boredom didn't have the mercy of death, after all. It would save him from more than boredom too, like infections, STD's, cancer, HIV, _necrotising fasciitis_ , accidents involving cars, ships and/or aeroplanes, murder, war, nuclear explosions and fallout, rape and the common fucking cold.

He looked around his apartment for anything that one could use to end their own life. Even with a cursory glance, several possibilities made themselves clear, though he could probably find more if he wanted to get creative…

 _You're stalling, you stupid fuck! Get to it…!_

Kenny's head slammed into the hard countertop, blatantly ignoring his own command to keep studying. Perhaps he could barbeque a couple of marshmallows if he put his homework on fire?

He wasn't particularly fond of marshmallows, but it was the thought and sense of adventure that counted.

That said, the fire department would probably have a hissy fit… and the owner of the building… and his neighbours…

It would be worth it!

But where would he live after getting thrown out?

 _Why don't I just jump off the balcony?_

He could put up the speakers and play 'I Believe I Can Fly' or 'I Can't Seem to Fly' at full blast, it was bound to be heard if he opened the windows, and jump while singing along to the chorus…

An involuntary, amused smile crept up on his lips at the mental image, quickly disappearing when the book and papers next to his cheek came into focus again.

"Fucking Mondays… they are the day of tribulations. Every. _Single_. _**Week**_." He accentuated the statement with a couple of gentle thumps on the desk with his head.

For a long time, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the wall mounted clock doing it's very best to fill the empty silence in the room as Kenny went over the day in his head again. Doing so, he found himself past the irritation, frustration and anger. But not in the calming down sense, he had gone _beyond_ them and reached apathy, the eye of the storm.

Now he just hoped he could stay there till he could get to sleep.

The universe – or the bell on the door, as the case were – seemed willing to give him just a smudge of mercy after the day's emotional roller-coaster. Heaving himself out of his armchair, doing his best to ignore the pangs of pain from his abused muscles, he made his way over to the door, stretching out the kinks that sitting leaned forward at length had produced with loud pops.

 _*RIRIRIRI~NG!*_

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming! No need to get your panties in a bunch, it's only 7…"

 _*RIIIIIIIIING*_

 _You disagree, I see._

The bell rung again with irritating tenacity like it was trying to prove his thoughts right.

 _Well, fuck you too… and eat those panties while you're at it, hope they've been worn for a couple of weeks, it'll add some extra flavour._

With a glare that promised pain and an ever-growing headache did he unlock and swing the door open, finding Touya and his daughter waiting with jackets on and an umbrella each in hand.

"Ready to head out?"

"Huh?" _We~ell, that was an eloquent answer, you fucktard…_ "What?"

Touya looked amused; "Have you forgotten what we agreed upon this morning? Going senile at seventeen doesn't bode too well."

"Karl, is that you? I haven't seen you in years!" he answered in a perfect deadpan.

The man scratched his messy dark brown hair in a worried-like manner, "Alzheimer's, or something thereof, is a definite possibility though…"

Kenny gave a sardonic smile, "You're the doc, I'm sure you would recognise the symptoms."

He rolled his eyes, "Careful brat, you're looking at the guy in charge of patching up your insides if you ever find yourself in ER, getting on my bad side isn't the smartest idea."

"Don't the 'I'll save all lives' oath that you medicine people seem to swear by mean anything in this day and age? A doctor threatening a potential patient, where is this world heading?" he answered in a melodramatic voice.

This produced an evil looking smile on Touya, "Oh, I never said I'd do anything harmful, or even that _I_ would be doing anything, but I can't promise that the food being served isn't going to inexplicably be changed to consist solely of salad during your stay."

"Hey, can we get going?" Kaoru piped up before either could continue with the bickering. Her father sent her a short glance before giving Kenny a look all too easy to identify.

"So, what do you want to do?"

Although he hadn't gone to any lengths to hide his disposition this time around, the look in Touya's, and even Kaoru's, eyes showed that they had noticed.

 _That bodes well for their perceptive abilities, at least…_ He thought sarcastically before cursing his habit of throwing out unnecessary and stupid thoughts and statements into the air, these two didn't deserve it.

 _I'm too relaxed with these guys…_

So, what _did_ he want to do? He wasn't in the mood for socialising and frankly had stuff he needed to do, the papers on hiragana wouldn't memorise themselves, after all. Besides, if he came along there was a chance that he would sour the father-daughter duos own mood, and what with Touya's work schedule and always being on call inevitably made the time the two spent together doing things rather limited. Ruining that time wasn't what he wanted.

On the other hand, if he were to stay at home there was no guarantee that he would do his homework. Actually, since he was already decidedly tired of it, chances where he would sit and brood, if not catch a movie on the TV or surf the w-

"C'mon, it'll be fun!"

Small hands grabbed hold of his larger one and gave a sharp tug, not enough to unbalance him but enough to get the intention clearly across. Unlike her father, who was seemingly content in the knowledge that he didn't know enough about the blonde to force him to do anything, Kaoru was willing to force the answer in her favour, and if that familiar fire in her eyes were any indication, she wouldn't settle for anything but a yes.

 _And if I do say no she'll use that weapon of hers against me._

Another insistent tug, "C'mon."

He relented with a sigh, he couldn't say no to her... A smile formed on Kaoru's face as a result and she started to push him back inside the apartment, eagerly telling him to hurry up with the shoes and jacket while grabbing the umbrella leaning next to the door.

 _Perhaps it won't be so bad…_

It was a somewhat hollowed out thought, but Kaoru's bright outlook and eagerness were at least partially infectious, helping chase the maybes of the idea of going out away. That bickering with Touya that morning had improved, if not erased, his foul mood considerably was also a factor.

Still, there was some small part of him that thought it a waste of time. Whether it was the part of him that was feeling unsocial or the one that was still feeling upset by how the day went, if there even was a difference between the two, he wasn't sure. Perhaps it only was his gut feeling. Regardless, he chose to ignore it.

"Hurry up already, Onii-san!"

Or, more likely, he just didn't have the time to overthink it with the midnight blue-haired girl shooing him out his own door with his umbrella cradled in her arms.

He felt his eyebrow twitch at the sight: _It_ wouldn't _do to miss that little fucker_ again _, would it…_

Barely given any time to lock the door, the two men followed the girls lead at a more sedate pace than she seemed to desire, as evident at her impatient look and rapidly tapping foot at the end of the hallway. As they got closer, she bounded down the stairs in a clattering of steps and out of sight. The two shared a look, his questioning while Touya's was a blend between knowingly amused and apologetic. Still, he got no answer to his silent query as they started down the steps.

In the silence beyond the tapping of steps a couple of floors down and next to him and squeaking that all his shoes always seemed to have, he looked around in disinterest. The hallways of the building were coloured in drab and dreary, a potent blend that one should have found in an older, depilated building rather than one that was relatively new, like this one. He couldn't have been the first, nor be the last, to see the façade and think the apartment building to be a newly built and a seemingly good place to live, only to enter and be hit by the near depressing corridors, just to enter one of the apartments and find them to be nice.

As well as out of his price range…

In a way, the place was an emotional rollercoaster.

"Why are you two so slow!?" Kaoru's complaining voice rang out as they came to the ground floor. Her arms were crossed, and there was an indignant pout on her face, one could have thought that the fact they hadn't left yet was an insult to her.

"Why are you in such a rush? You didn't seem too into the idea of going out into the rain when I first brought this up."

"We-well…" She trailed off, sending a quick glance at Kenny before finding an interesting spot on the wall to stare at. A bare second later she harshly shook her head, making her past the shoulders ponytail whip around wildly. Whether it was to admonish herself or psych herself up, Kenny didn't know, but she sent him that determined look of hers and stomped over.

"COME. ON. Get going already!" A small hand placed itself on the small of his back and pushed just hard enough to compel him to take a step forward, then another and another. A sideways glance told him that a chuckling Touya was in the same situation.

The rain had grown progressively worse the hours after Kenny left the gym, by now it was a downpour of water in the cold air. With their breaths visible as small puffs of clouds underneath the artificial light, they unfolded their umbrellas.

~-o0O0o- ~

To say that he had never been happier to be wearing a jacket would have been an overstatement, but the sentiment was very much a real one. The evening chill felt unrelenting with the occasional wind stabbing like a spear through the clothes and into the marrow of the bones with every intention of making the body its new home. Each stab distorting the fall of the falling droplets enough to render the umbrellas temporarily useless as their shoes and the legs of their pants became wetted by the calmed rain.

Thankfully, that became less of a problem once they stepped onto one of the narrower, tree-lined paths in the mountainside park. Unlike with Kuoh Academy, which was built to seem bigger than it was and very much unlike the neighbourhood park, which was more akin to a playground than an actual park, this one was of substantial size.

"This park stretches up into the mountains in the form of camping trails. Following the signs, one could easily make their way to the sea from here in four or so hours. It also stretches the edge of this side of the town, but I believe the trails goes the whole way around this valley."

"It's also where me and my friends hang out after school, there are lots to do here!"

Kaoru's two cents went a way to explain the lack of kids above the age of nine in the neighbourhood playground he had passed on his way home. Truthfully, it seemed more like a place where parents could come together and gossip about whatever neighbours gossiped about while letting their younger children play in the sandbox or on the swings. That the location was close enough to be within walking distance for most living in the area would also have been part of it, at least he would have been playing in the park if it had been close to home and there had been other kids there.

Looking around also showed the park to be well-taken care of. Although mostly left as nature intended, the main path was nearly surrounded by large flowerbeds with copious amounts of newly planted flowers, each one strategically placed to make up a part of the whole. The result became an atelier of different pictures ranging from realistic panoramas of ships on the water and mountains reaching the sky to the surreal and abstract with circles and half-moons turning into squares and triangles, forming impossible castles and people.

They came upon a wide-open space surrounded by trees rather than flower beds. Small fountains were placed around the oval area, an amphitheatre stood looming on one side, grey and hollow in the empty and rapidly darkening park.

"They do plays and concerts here in the summer, Kaa-chan and I usually go when she has time."

The rain would be the only actor to take the stage this night, a lone performance without an audience to celebrate the creation brought before them. Even so, Kenny could easily imagine how it would look like during the summer with benches having been placed around the open space and with the performance of some group that's probably going to enjoy themselves far more on stage than the people there to watch them.

"This park is one of two places where they hold large-scale festivals, the other is the amusement park in outer Kuoh. It's close to the sea, which has a beach and a good lookout on the cliffs and has a large, wide open area without any attractions that get transformed into a festival area with attractions from outside. Both are rather popular, but one over the other is preferred depending on which festival is being celebrated. Hanami is preferred here, even if only a limited area is actually cultivated with sakura trees, as well as Momijigari because it's closer to nature while festivals such as Tanabata and the end of the Bon festival are held at the amusement park."

"I take it both are open?"

"Yes, you just have to pick and choose. Other local activities that happen here is the yearly Running of the Demons Peaks, which is a marathon that anyone can sign up to. I believe they run some 60 or so kilometres through the streets, into the woods and mountains then back down. Not an easy trek when one considers how steep some of the paths they take actually are."

"Friendly name for a friendly competition…" Kenny answered sarcastically at which Touya merely shrugged, "It's an old tradition meant to lure the oni into a battle between their respective clans. Kuoh is the shortened and rewritten form of the old name: Maōzan-hen. So instead of Kuoh with the characters for Piece and King, we have the characters for Demon, King, Mountain and Pieces. The people who lived here rarely ventured into the mountains themselves due to their belief that demons inhabited the peaks. At least that's the story as far as I remember it, but I haven't been that interested in it or the event. Perhaps it was a raid from bandits, ronin or samurai, but within the mind of the villagers, they were demons. Perhaps they figured that if the 'oni' ever grew plentiful enough they would need to attack the valley, so by goading them into fighting each other they could continue to live in the valley peacefully. I do know that there are more visitors to ER around that time of the year, though."

Touya slouched somewhat and heaved a heavy sigh, it was as if the mere memory was enough to bring back the stress he felt during those events.

Ignoring the professional woes only a doctor could feel, Kenny remembered a similar event back in Sweden, just bigger in scope: "Hmm… It's a better background to something than Vasaloppet, at least it has more character."

"What's Vasalopete?" Kaoru piped up, finally finding something that could be potentially interesting. He chuckled lightly at the slight butchering of his mother tongue but didn't see a need to correct her.

"It's a skiing contest hosted each year in Sweden. According to history, Gustav Vasa, before becoming king, had to assemble an army after the Danish king had killed off prominent members of the Swedish nobility. He arrived in Dalarna, a part in central Sweden, and told the people living there of the crimes committed by the Danish king and asking for their help in fighting the Danish, but they didn't believe him, so he had to continue in the winter snow on skies. He was halfway to Norway when the people got the quote-unquote official news and finally caught up with him."

"That's much more interesting than the story of the demon peaks! At least it really happened."

"I disagree on both accounts; Japan has so many monsters and spirits that it's hard not to get interested when there's a story involving them." Kaoru gave a half nod, understanding where he was coming from but not completely agreeing. "Also, historians aren't completely united on what happened back then. The book that describes the events around the king's travels was written by men either chosen by Vasa himself or was otherwise positively connected to him."

"Why? Isn't that a good thing?" Kaoru asked, visibly confused.

"It's because most kings want to look good, and if that means they have to say that they saved a princess or two when they, in reality, haven't, they will."

Not historically correct, maybe, but it would get the message across to the child.

"Many rulers throughout history have changed or spun false stories to make themselves look more sympathetic and be in the right."

She didn't look entirely convinced, but shrugged her shoulders and took the lead down one of the paths. It didn't take too long before the level ground turned into an uphill walk with stairs becoming more frequent as they climbed the mountainside. Kenny, lagging slightly behind from previous exhaustion and to give himself a chance to memorise some distinct feature in the area in case he ever found himself along the trails on his own, put his trust in his guides ability not to get them lost for now. All the while Kaoru was pointing this and that way, telling different stories of what she and her friends had done at a specific creak or fallen tree in the area.

The time when the group of kids hid in the high grass and attacked some teenagers with water balloons, their adventure as pirates and ninjas searching for treasure or trying to sneak into designated castle amongst the trees. Looking for spirits and small monsters up on the lookout.

Each story, while different, always had the same names that instigated the adventures that would inevitably lead to a scolding after having wandered off too far, been out past curfew or made some mischief. Saya, Ko-chan and Kaoru herself were always in the middle of whatever happened, always the leaders of the whatever crazy thing they would try out next, always dragging the others into trouble.

In a way, he revelled in these stories, having grown up in an area where he was the only kid his age, he was personally sorely lacking in such tales. School- _Eugh!_ – was the only place where he could have had such adventures, and the less said about that, the better.

Envious, that was the feeling he got as he listened to yet another story, as ridiculous as it was, at the young tomboy's ability to make friends and her ability to find things to do with them. Where his childhood had been mostly lonely, with a couple of exceptions, and spent as the unpopular kid in school, Kaoru was the complete opposite; lively, social, spontaneous, the popular kid in the crowd, always in motion for something new to happen.

Throwing off the unwanted memories of his childhood, lest he'd need to find something or someone to kick, Kenny looked past Touya, who was walking just ahead of him, and up the set of stairs they were currently climbing. It was only the last of several, though they did a number on his ability to keep track over just how far they had walked.

Up ahead was nothing new, trees bordered the staircase, and there was nothing at the top to indicate where they were going or that there even was a continuation of the path. From down here it looked like the forest had swallowed up the road, the crest of the current hill a gaping maw of green. The rain, now coming down harder on the ground than ever, only added to the picture as drool.

The forest almost seemed hungry.

Kenny smirked at the thought, the darkness provided by the overcast sky and the overhanging trees, coupled with the general atmosphere and being unaccustomed with the area was starting to slightly mess with his head, making him hypersensitive to whichever perceived sound that came from beyond the treeline.

 _Perhaps I'll see a ghost…_

He gave a light chuckle at the ridiculous thought, drawing the attention of his two companions and guides. "The area is starting to mess with my head, it's somewhat freaky."

Touya gave him a look before a smirk spread on his lips, "I took you for someone that was immune to it, but to be smiling?"

"No, but one has to be a psychopath to enjoy cutting people open…"

"I'm a surgeon, it's part of the job descrip-"

"So, you _are_ a psychopath!" He cupped his mouth and shouted mockingly, "HELP! HELP, THERE IS A STABBY, STABBY MURDERER HERE!"

The man's eyebrow twitched, and he gave an irritated smirk, "Now, now brat, I wouldn't be that unkind. But someone with your particular preferences would certainly enjoy it more if I were to tie you to one of the trees and leave you. Now, why don't I return to the car and fetch the gag and rope."

"Oh~, kinky man, carrying your toys around with you… tell me _all_ about your escapades, don't be shy now, I promise I won't judge."

"… I'll tie you up and leave you here…" Touya said lowly, mock threatening.

"And let me become the meal of whichever animal that happens to roam the area? My dear doctor, I think I'll have to pass on that. Thank you for asking, though." He gave a bow, impersonating a butler.

"I'm not asking."

Ignoring the light-toned answer, Kenny instead took to remedy a curiosity he had carried for a while now.

"Too late to ask, especially since I now know what you aim to do to me, but where are the two of you leading me anyway?"

"You'll see! It's amazing, it's my favourite place here, and it's pretty at night. Well, it's raining now, but it should still be pretty!" Kaoru called from up ahead.

 _The lookout she keeps mentioning, then?_

It was the logical assumption; it had come up enough times during her stories that it was impossible not to believe it to be one of her favourite places.

A small branching of the path was almost immediate at the top of the stairs, the main route continuing forward unopposed while the branching paths were either stone laid or a gravel road. The latter broke off into the trees at a clear upward angle, leading wherever, while the former, which they took and after a short walk, lead them to a clearing.

The building itself was an unusual combination of a log cabin and concrete building. It was surprisingly pleasing and seamless; the concrete corners having been made deliberately uneven, allowing for whichever species of climbing plants they had grown to cling to while the base of the wooden walls had flowerbeds filled with unobtrusive flowers. A wooden fence had been erected just beyond the house as a preventative measure to keep the incautious and stupid from falling off the, presumably, cliff beyond in search of the perfect picture or selfie.

 _Do they even take selfies in Japan?_ He hoped not, it was already an irritating occurrence in western society.

Beyond that edge the valley was, for lack of a better word, burning. The area behind the house was dark, likely as to not contaminate the light show that was bound to happen in the valley below or from the stars above, while the front was well lit up by strategically place lampposts.

Led by the once again eager Kaoru, the trio entered the moderately sized lookout. The inside was empty of people and only degrees warmer than outside, despite the open doorway and windows. There was limited lighting, provided just to ensure that people didn't stumble around in complete darkness while looking at the stars through the see-through roof. It was also dry, a most welcome change from standing under an umbrella in the rain for the better part of an hour. Said objects were only slightly shaken off before being deposited next to the entrance.

It didn't take long for Kaoru to grab hold of Kenny's hand and start dragging him around the benches and tables over to the other side of the room. His eyes were unwillingly drawn to the outside before Kaoru even urged him to, and what he saw was both something new to him and impressive.

They were high enough to get a good look over the valley below, but the darkness and rain made it all but impossible to see the town… Or so he had thought the case would be.

'On fire' was an apt description. The lights from homes, buildings and streetlamps lit up the area below in a manner that reminded him of those night-time satellite pictures of earth he had seen from time to time. Nearly everything could be seen, nowhere near perfectly due to the rain and distance, but he could find the silhouette of the academy easily enough. Then again, that wasn't an all too hard venture when one considered the just how much area the place covered.

 _Perhaps I was wrong about just how large the academy was..._

It was _much_ bigger than he initially assumed. From this distance, it looked like all the divisions of the school were in one place rather than spread out across the town. There was some distance between them, but there didn't seem to be anything there to keep anyone from walking over to the elementary or college divisions if they wanted.

Then again, he was far away and looking through the rain and darkness.

It was far harder for him to find the newly moved-into apartment building or the shopping district in its vicinity. Even tracing his half-baked mental map from the academy yielded little result.

Just as he was growing frustrated, a hand came up in front of his face, all fingers extended outward in a… well, a bastardised way of pointing ones' finger. It took him a second to remember that it was rude to point at people as he usually would, though there were no people involved this time. Perhaps it simply was a habit the doctor had, one that, in this case, made it just a little harder than it had to be to identify what exactly he was aiming for with which finger.

"We parked the car down there-" Touya supplied. That was easy enough to follow, though he couldn't see the parking area for the trees. The hand moved "- and in that general area over there is where our apartment is located."

 _Unless it's sprouted legs and walked away, you mean…_

General was the word, he couldn't identify which of the collection of buildings was theirs, if it had walked away it would have been noticeable at least. It wasn't unexpected, but his inner child got just slightly disappointed at not being able to quickly point it out even after being helped to do so.

"Over there's the shopping district that's closest to our building, and over there is the train station. Fair warning, with the rebuilding that's happening in the area it's easy to get lost."

Kenny had to keep himself from snorting in derision, he had arrived by train and saying that it was easy to get lost was a definite understatement. The area was a goddamn maze more than anything, and coupling that with him being new to the area had led him to walk around the station a couple of times without getting anywhere. He _had_ planned to eat breakfast at home, but it had instead taken place at a café just outside the station since he couldn't find a way to leave.

Half an hour could have been shaved off his 75 minutes of walking if it hadn't been for the 'rebuilding and renovations' in the area!

Ignorant of Kenny's internal rant, Touya continued his explanation: "The area does contain some of the more entertaining places, though, and I hear they are finalising work on an aquarium now. All the way over there is the hospital where I work, not the easiest place to make out in the dark and rain but it's there."

Touya kept pointing out the different areas in the town, adding whatever pertinent information he knew about them.

~-o0 April 19th, Tuesday, 2016 0o- ~

Kenny awoke to the continued pitter-patter of rain hitting against the bedroom window. His sleep had been surprisingly peaceful, he would usually wake at least a couple of times during the first week of sleeping in a new bed. Instead, he had blacked out ten or so minutes after his head hit the pillow, another unusual occurrence.

Still, he wasn't too hot on the idea of getting out of bed. It was, of course, the reason for the alarm blaring for the third time in an equal amount of thirty minutes. Or rather, it should have been.

 _*RIIING!*_

What was so incessantly calling his attention a mere ten minutes before the second alarm wasn't the annoying sound of his phone, but the equally irritating bell on the front door, easily heard through the open bedroom door.

… _I'm genuinely starting to hate that bell…_

Crawling over to the edge of the bed and looking at the phone revealed the time to be 6:20 in the morning.

He heaved himself out of the large bed with a groan, wondering who in their right mind would visit anyone this early while making a shallow attempt at rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sat on the edge, hoping against hope that whoever it was would give up. It was after another two calls that he, with a tired sigh, concluded that they wouldn't. Reaching for his glasses, he went to his closet. A simple t-shirt and a pair of baggy sweatpants would do well enough in curing his morning nudity.

 _*RIING*_

"Yeah, yeah…" He yawned out lowly as he slipped back out of the walk-in closet, well knowing that it wouldn't be heard by whoever the visitor was.

 _It's too early to deal with people._

He needed a cup of coffee first… or a filled pot. Not for the coffees sake or because he couldn't handle mornings, but because he didn't want to deal with people _just_ yet.

The tall and slender figure – at least by Japanese standards, as he was still standing a head taller than the woman – that met him at the door was a grown-up copy of her daughter, midnight blue hair fell to her mid back unhindered like a waterfall while the left of her dark eyes was covered by the length of her bangs, the other being pulled behind her right ear. The eyes were the one thing that her daughter hadn't inherited, where the mothers were a blue so dark it was bordering on black, Kaoru's were a shade or two lighter than her father's own warm brown.

She was striking and young looking, one would have been forgiven to assume her to be Touya's first daughter and the older sister of Kaoru rather than a wife and mother maybe ten or so years younger than her husband.

"Yo!" She flashed a toothy smile while giving a two-fingered salute, seemingly not at all bothered by the early hour.

"Morning… Sakaki-san." He answered somewhat uncertainly, it felt slightly wrong calling both Touya and Aiko Sakaki-san. More than that it felt like a source of confusion for him: in Sweden one always referred to each other by first name, and English had the Mr and Miss/Mrs to denote male and female, but Japanese only had the neutral suffix san. He had found some ways around it, but calling Touya husband and Aiko wife felt just as bad as using Sakaki-san when referring to one or the other when in either's company.

 _I'm too self-conscious about this._

It was a real clash of cultures, though. Swedes were always direct when speaking and referring to others while the Japanese always seemed measured and mired with formalities. In Sweden, a person's surname would only be used as a clarification if there were more people with the same name or in particular circumstances. Here it wasn't only the norm, it could be insulting to refer to someone with the wrong suffix or by their first name without first getting to know them.

There were three Sakaki's living next door, and while he didn't have to be overly worried about calling Kaoru by her name, the other two was another thing. Especially since he was making a consorted effort to, at least partially, acclimate to the new culture.

"The hospital called Touya earlier this morning, so he asked if I could drive you to the academy seeing as he wouldn't be able to. I hope you don't have a problem with the sudden change."

The look in her eye told him that he didn't. He could only sigh and give a wry smile at her forceful attitude. Undoubtedly, she wouldn't take a no for an answer even if he said it. Strangely enough, he didn't feel too put off by it. He assumed it was because of the warmth in her voice and generally cheerful mood.

"Sure, a deal is a deal. Doesn't matter who fulfils it."

"And you're having breakfast with us."

 _That_ he was put off by, wasn't he already indebted enough?

Well, at least it was Tuesday.

At least he had had a good night's sleep…

At least he was going to be spending his morning with people he didn't mind being with…

And finally, at least he had gotten rid of most of the anger he had towards yesterday's entire debacle.

~-o0O0o- ~

The term torn didn't do his current feeling justice. It was quite the misnomer: while he could have been called torn, the truth was that he really wasn't. He didn't want to enter through those gates. He really didn't, and he didn't have any qualms about downright turning around and walking away from them without a second look back.

On the other hand, perhaps it wasn't a misnomer. Kenny knew the repercussions of not going would be potentially harsher than he was used to, and that was the reason he stood there shilly-shallying. Having a teacher, or another 'authority figure', talking down to him about duty, the importance of him taking his future seriously and what-have-you wasn't all too far up on his list of wants.

No, perhaps it was a misnomer… or not. Well, instead of debating whether to enter the academy he was simply standing outside philosophising about whether it was a misnomer. In a way, he was indeed torn, he couldn't decide on which it was now that he wasn't focusing on the original issue.

He was happy about not focusing on the original issue, even if that was the exact reason why he was still standing at the front gate, looking like a fool – not that he could care much about that – instead of walking away to do something more enjoyable with his time.

 _*DING, DONG, DANG, DONG*_

And there it returned into focus, with the tolling of the first bell. He sighed and unwillingly entered the school with the other stragglers running past his unhurried strides.

The front of the school was beautiful, and with the lessening number of people in the area, also peaceful. It would be all too easy to just lay down on the grass next to a tree or one of the briars and go to sleep. Sadly, there was still a nip in the air that wasn't too comfortable without a jacket on and the wet ground was viable to sap any warmth he had, making the rather tempting idea take on a more uncomfortable tone.

The entrance was mostly bereft of life; a couple of students were changing their shoes while another was hurrying towards class on the opposite side. It took Kenny a minute to find his own wooden shoe locker. While his roman-written name was easy enough to pick out from the rows of unreadable kanji, to the point where it was almost embarrassing, having the locker in the near middle of the row made it harder to find. The fact that he didn't remember which of the two inner rows he had been placed forced him to walk back and forth in the aisles to find it.

Once he did find the locker, it didn't take long for the black indoor shoes to get on his feet, and him to get going for his home classroom on the second floor. A few students populated the corridors and stairs, a brief moment of freedom before the hectic day of a Japanese student began. Some of his fellows would stop whatever they were doing as he passed, sending a glance or look his way while others would start talking lowly to each other in a faux attempt to seem to have a private talk.

Calmer than he had been the previous day, he could ignore them easily enough, there was little to no outward sign that he even knew what was happening.

 _What I perceive is happening…_ he corrected himself.

But regardless of whether they were talking about him being a new face and one of the rare foreigners on campus, or it was about his outburst yesterday, he didn't feel like paying them too much mind. And, in the all too likely worst-case scenario, he didn't feel like correcting their views on him, it was doubtful that they would care to listen. Even if they did, the gossip was already making rounds.

His reputation had already taken a turn for the worse, and nowhere was that more noticeable than the reactions from his classroom when he opened the door.

The sound of chatting, prevalent even through the closed door, disappeared into an uncomfortable and tense silence as he was slowly noticed. There were no greetings, merely blatant staring or sidelong glances. The ones that didn't accept yesterday's apology were as reproachful or withdrawn as they had been the day before, others were simply observing him in a way that signified they weren't sure of his current mood.

Kenny similarly observed the class, judging their reaction to his entrance and to making eye contact. He hadn't learnt many of the names in his class yet, but he had memorised a couple.

Hiwatari Sayuri, seemingly a shy and withdrawn girl, was obviously slightly put off by him, but at least she was giving him a small nod in acknowledgement when he looked at her. That was more than most did.

Kiryuu Aika was by far the most open about her neutrality towards him with a wave. Not unexpected, as much as she creeped him out with her smirks and looks that said she knew more uncomfortable facts about you than you would ever want anyone to, Kenny had to respect her tolerance to people being stupid.

Hyoudou Issei was also a recognised face, if for nothing more than the fact that he was the glowering boy sitting in the seat in front of his own. As were his friends Matsuda, distinct by his shaved head, almost perpetually closed eyes and, frankly, monkey-like face and ears, and the guy with the glasses whose name he hadn't bothered catching. The three belonged to the 'mood observation' group but didn't acknowledge him in any way, even pretending not to be looking when given a brief glance.

"Get to your seat, Nilsson-kun. The same with the rest of you, homeroom starts now." Takagami's voice did a good job of dispelling the atmosphere that hung over the class, followed only half a minute later by the bell.

The five minutes dedicated to homeroom passes quickly and with little more than the customary 'stand-bow-sit' ritual. Most of it Kenny spent merely looking out the window, lending half an ear to the lack of crucial daily information while wishing he was somewhere else. Judging by his teachers near monotone voice, he wasn't the only one with that sentiment. Luckily for Takagami, he was out the door just as quickly as he had entered, leaving the students in class 2-B to prepare for their first lesson of the day.

Kenny fished out his world history book, not expecting to use it, or any other book, due to his analphabetic problem, together with a notebook and pen.

Ahead of him, Matsuda and the bespectacled boy met up with Issei again and started discussing some film that had been lent him. Issei looked like he had a fan-gasm the moment it was brought up. He didn't need to see their faces – or their body language, which was honestly amusing to watch, especially Matsuda's – the half-secret way they talked spoke volumes of what it was about. That it was called 'gentlemen's entertainment' only reinforced Kenny's assumption.

Not at all in the mood to listen to another guys' thoughts on their wank-material, Kenny tuned them out and glanced around the room. Real classes would start 8:45, but despite the short timeframe people still sought out their groups and cliques in class, wholly ignorant of his presence or nonpresence. Even the most studious looking ones found themselves short on things to do after fetching their materials from beneath their desks or bags. Some quietly sat and waited while others seemed to be either reviewing what they had learned during the last lesson or reading a book.

Kiryuu was talking to what Kenny had dubbed the 'kendo duo', it was as much as he knew about them. There were another couple of girls in the circle, but he barely even recognised them as classmates. If it weren't for their uniforms, he wouldn't even have recognized them to be students of Kuoh Academy.

The guys in the class were divided into three groups, discounting Issei and his friends there were two over by the window in the front of the class and another three in front of the teachers' desk. He wasn't surprised about that, while as a minority they were sticking together, there were still too many guys in class and school to fit together as a single, complete group.

 _Alliance out of necessity, huh…_

Had there been any animosity or bad blood between the two groups then they wouldn't be standing as close as they were, allowing for the other to join at their own discretion. At the same time, neither truly acknowledge the other: they either didn't know each other well enough due to the new class or they were too dissimilar to genuinely get along.

Neutrality out of necessity would probably have been a more suitable description of their situation.

Regardless of whatever internal politics, as it were, they had going on, none of them paid him any kind of attention.

"Take your seats!" The appearance of the elderly, stern looking teacher in front of the whiteboard shocked him back to reality, so far gone in his own thoughts to notice the door being opened or anyone having entered.

~-o0 Lunchbreak 0o- ~

While the idea of having two separate classes for national history and world history was a novel one, it didn't make the teachers any less boring to listen to. The lack of ability to make the subject exciting had been a trend through three of the four fifty-minute classes, though Kenny was doubtful that anyone could ever make math exciting. The real problem that the teachers had, however, was the way they went about teaching. It couldn't have been called anything less than studying, drilling in the information into your head until it stuck.

Personally, he preferred the learning route: make the subject engaging and interesting. It was for that exact reason that English with Takagami had been the highpoint of the morning classes. It hadn't involved a continuous droning about whatever subject had been presented, but rather an attempt at an open discussion. It also helped that Takagami wasn't afraid of directing his questions at both him and others and that he didn't seem to be watching him like a hawk.

And watch him they did…

The faculty made it all too evident that yesterday's outburst was known to the teachers, and when they did give him one of those looks that said they were watching him, he would just raise a sarcastic eyebrow at them. Pissing them off may not have been the best course of action, but it was the response he was the most compelled to give when it happened.

The lunch bell had rung only minutes ago, so the corridor was filled with teens heading to the cafeteria or wherever else to eat their food. Kenny followed the schooling shoal of students, more of a floater within it than an active participant. Some people veered off once they reached specific classrooms or hallways while the majority kept on walking downstairs.

The double doors leading into the cafeteria were wooden with tinted glass, propped open for anyone to enter. The inside was one of the few rooms in the school that hadn't been renovated into a more modern look; Tudor style, Takagami had called it. The interior of the new school building had originally been built in such a manner – the exterior was Victorian – while the old school building had been simply wooden. He had added, as a side note, that the so-called 'old school building' had only been used during the renovation of the actual school, and even then, only partially due to the improvements happening in instalments, and in a single area at the time. Before and after it had been used as one of the dormitories before they were built elsewhere, after that it became the home for several clubs that had since moved into the renovated school.

Beyond the tables that dotted the wide-open space, six carved wooden pillars were bearing up the roof, which was covered in panels put together to resemble six-sided stars.

Almost immediately to the left upon entry there were vending machines for drinks and food coupons. Beyond that, along the left wall were first the shop for baked goods and then the food counter, beyond both of which one could see the kitchen staff moving about, getting plates of food to the students and pastries to the shelves.

It was almost surreal to see the difference between the half chaotic bustle that was occurring at the shop and the organised line of students waiting at the counter. Luckily, Kenny wouldn't have to join either.

The right side, stretching all the way to the opposite side of the room, was covered with windows, while two doors allowed students to pass through to eat at the tables outside.

That was where Kenny was heading, the weather was nicer now than it had been when he first arrived in Kuoh town five days ago, the morning's nip was largely gone now that the clouds had travelled beyond the valley and the sun had been allowed to spread its warmth.

Few paid him any mind as he passed the myriad of tables, and the gazes thrown his way felt more towards being of curiosity of him being a foreigner than judging. He found himself a table slightly away from the others, he didn't know anyone and didn't want to deal with the inevitable awkwardness that would come by sitting next to a total stranger or his new classmates.

That being said, he _had_ to find people to hang with. As fatalistic as it sounded, the future of his school life weighed heavily on him building at least some shallow or superficial bonds with his fellows. Not that he was sure how he was going to bring himself into what was a by large established group even if he was in a mood to socialise…

So, he made the calculated decision to sit alone rather than trying to join an already established group.

As opposed to sitting alone because he wanted to, which he couldn't deny was also true…

 _Let's see if anyone would actually be willing to give me a chance…_

That was the big thing; he was new. Human nature, or rather their sympathetic nature, pretty much dictated them to at least try not to leave others alone.

'Build sympathy for the person, then show off their success in such a grand manner as possible… That is what makes a story touching.'

His teacher had talked about Susan Boyles first appearance on Britain Got Talent when he had said that. Unless they were narcissists, sociopaths or psychopaths, or had something else wrong with their ability to feel for others, they would inevitably put themselves into the shoes of the underdog and wish for him/her not to embarrass her/himself in front of others.

Although the situation was different, the idea still applied: Kenny was new, had a bad first day and was sitting alone. Someone could, plain and simple, take pity on him.

What was important wasn't whether he was an introvert or extrovert, but that he was going to spend two years in this school. School by itself wasn't fun, period. But with the right people keeping you company, it could at least be bearable.

Kenny heaved a sigh as he sat down, he really wasn't in the mood to socialise, even if he knew that it was necessary in the long run.

 _Assuming this half-assed plan even works…_

Putting the matter aside, he started digging through his bag, collecting a box wrapped in cloth and put it on the table. He had never thought he would eat a stereotypical bento, yet in front of him, there was one. He honestly felt slightly ridiculous untying the knot, he wasn't used to this at all, the image didn't fit in his head.

He had Aiko to thank for that, she had practically forced it on him! When he declined on the basis that he felt the Sakakis were doing too much for him, she had tried to pull the dirty trick of asking if he didn't like her cooking. He had been mature with his response: pushed his point, unafraid of the consequences and Aiko had respectfully backed down…

… apparently not, the bento was in his bag when he loaded it with the book they were supposed to read from English class, and he was pretty sure of who it was that put it there, or rather who put her up to put it there. He _had_ allowed Kaoru to tag along into his apartment when he was getting ready, after all.

Or perhaps it was planted while they were in the car, his bag _had_ been in the back seat…

 _Not gonna turn my nose up on food, though._

Underneath the lid was an assortment of small portions of food; strips of potatoes that had been soaked in some sauce, a portion of rice with a couple of lines with the same sauce as on the potatoes with fried mushrooms, an assortment of greens, a cut up cutlet and chicken, as well as a couple of sausages.

He picked up the hashi, put aside while he dealt with the knot, and got to eating, enjoying the surprisingly good taste from the cold dishes while looking at nothing in the surrounding garden and simply enjoying the calm.

"Sitting alone?" He was halfway through his lunch when the familiar voice, followed by the scraping of the chair against the stone laid ground, caught his attention.

"Not anymore, it would seem." Kenny answered as he watched the girl lazily unpack her own boxed lunch.

She flashed him a cheeky smirk, "Are you going to teach me any more of your language today?"

"Gesundheit."

"That's Swedish?"

"No. Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that's German?" Another cheeky smile that Kenny couldn't help but return.

"Ha-ha-ha, very funny. You know why I asked."

"And you should know why I asked. Perhaps I misjudged…" she trailed off thoughtfully with a mocking smile. Kenny waited, and when it became clear that she wouldn't elaborate on it, he asked for clarification.

"On your mood, or perhaps your intelligence… Who knows, guys seem to only focus on perverted things, just that most tend to do so less loudly than that idiot trio." Kenny snorted. "Well, I'll admit you seem more mature than the rest. Well, as mature as a guy throwing a tantrum in a classroom can be, I suppose."

She plainly ignored the annoyed look he shot her. "You're more interesting than the others, no one else in school would ever do what you did… and on the first day at that!"

"You're a real charmer, you know that, right?" Kenny muttered out sarcastically. "Where exactly do you want to go with this, or is it simply that you want to poke me for the fun of it?"

"Oh, it's nothing like that, I'm just saying that people are starting to recognise you."

"I somehow feel like you inexplicably jumped subject…" She had, oh she had.

"Look yourself." She threw her thumb in the general direction of the windows. Looking over, Kenny couldn't make out anything immediate beyond the transparent material. Students from all three grades were eating and chatting with each other, just like in any old school cafeteria. Beyond that nothing made itself too apparent.

That didn't mean that he didn't have a strong suspicion of what it was Kiryuu were alluding to, there weren't many options after all and she had been the one to tell him about the budding gossip making rounds on the second-year floor to begin with.

"Nothing, right? How about you _don't_ blatantly stare in that direction." He felt like smacking her for that comment, then give it a minute for the idea to settle before slapping himself for not having done so from the beginning.

Instead, he ignored her and continued to look, a frown forming on his features, "The gossip is starting to make rounds and evolve, I assume?"

"Some of them are saying that you hit a classmate. It's a surprisingly popular version of the event. Another says that you come from a prissy rich family. No idea where that came from, but I don't think many have heard it yet."

"It would certainly explain why I'm allowed to stay in school if both were true… 2000 yen says that the two are combined by tomorrow…" He grumbled and returned to his food, it didn't seem to taste as good anymore.

"No go, I don't take bets that I know I'm going to lose." She returned to her own lunch, giving her mocking and teasing a rest, switched out for a grim look in her eyes. Seemed like she too was slightly worried about him, that thought made him feel better. Not by much, but better.

 _Some things are too predictable._

Initially, he hadn't thought further than apologising, but once the gossip had been truly called to his attention, he knew that there was a chance that the story would be changed. While the truth did matter to people, gossip had a life of its own. It required only one person that wanted to spin a tale to change it, and while most people were inclined to believe the story that was most likely to have happened, it didn't mean that they didn't like hearing an exaggerated version of the events.

And this particular fish had only started to grow… and change colour.

"They'll pass unless you do something to reinforce them." Kiryuu comforted upon hearing him sigh.

He lifted his glasses and massaged his eyes, calmly stating; "I know, it's just the time between now and whenever that will happen that's giving me a headache. Hell, most won't even look in my direction, never mind approach."

"As I said, most did approve of your apology. I know I was impressed that it happened so fast, if at all…" She admitted shamelessly, but supplied that statement with, "Even so, anyone would be wary of someone they knew was in a bad mood."

 _Here in Japan, perhaps. Swedes understand that a person could have a shit day and still try to be accommodating…_

"Have I been projecting an aura or something that said I was in a foul mood?"

He had been slightly worried, which was a negative mood, but not in a way that would make him explode like he did yesterday. He had been keeping it under wraps, Kenny also knew that most couldn't read him until they got to know him better. Even then, there had been instances where those that knew him best had misjudged his mood.

Kiryuu shrugged, "More along the lines of 'leave me alone' if you ask me. You haven't exactly been the most forthcoming about wanting to interact with anyone, either."

His eyes narrowed in thought, ' _Leave me alone'… That's accurate enough, I'd say._

"And yet you're here…"

"It's amusing to poke people or stir the hornets' nest if you will. Besides, I'm not as cruel as to leave a person on his own."

"Cruel enough to poke the new guy for his stupid outburst, apparently." Kenny muttered out dryly, making a show of lifting an eyebrow.

She smirked, "You know you like it."

"I do. And I thank you kindly for giving me material for my nightly fantasies, I've been dry for weeks." Kenny answered with false sincerity.

The smirk morphed into an amused smile with that comment, "Good try, but I was in the same class as the perverted trio last year. Oh, and you should probably buy some remoistening salves or see a doctor, it can't possibly be good for you. Could also leave rashes, that ought to hurt pretty badly."

"… I walked into that one…"

"That you did." She nodded sagely with her arms crossed, looking for all intents and purposes like she was confirming a divine truth that her pupil had reached. One could almost call it dignified… if it wasn't for the subject matter.

A short silence followed, broken only by the rhythmic tapping of fingers on the table from the male and the dull thuds of chopsticks hitting plastic from his lunch partner.

"It's an awkward business…"

"Huh?" Kiryuu finished the food in her mouth, "What is? Combating me with words? Or finding material that keeps you from going dry?"

Kenny's eyebrow twitched, and he fought the urge to cover up, there was that creepy smirk again. She had to be doing it on purpose, there was no way she was doing that unconsciously.

"No… _that_ would be easy were I in the mood for it. I meant approaching people. Never actually got the hang of it. Understanding people is easy in comparison to getting to know them."

"Huh. I'm not sure whether to call that self-deprecating or arrogant."

"I'd go for arrogant myself."

"Seeing as you were the one making the statement, I don't think your opinion on how it could be seen carry any weight."

He conceded that with a sideways nod.

~-o0O0o- ~

Tuesday, it was only the second day that he had spent in school, but he had found some points that he could relate to with his English teacher. First of all, both were born and raised outside of Japan, in Europe. There wasn't much more to it, really, but the cultures were similar enough that a miscommunication was unlikely to happen.

Secondly was the understanding that school was downright boring, mostly because of a lack of ingenuity from the teachers' side. This truly showed in Takagami's teaching method: he barely ever used the whiteboard in the two classes Kenny had attended, engaged his students with questions that pretty much demanded an extended answer before turning it into several discussions. The only books that the blonde had seen during those lessons were dictionaries, the teacher had told everyone to remove their textbooks the moment he had entered.

Finally, it was the intense hatred towards the unnecessary formalities that was far too prevalent in the school. Point in case, the final assembly of the day in homeroom was best described as a time for preaching about how to be good citizens, having careful consideration for ones' future, the importance of diligent study, and to think about how ones' actions could reflect poorly on themselves, their family and the school.

Although no one of his classmates looked enthusiastic about the topic, the prize still went to the two foreigners in the room. Takagami looked like he was trying to hide that he was eating something sour, hot, peppery and foul tasting all at the same time with every word that came out. It was all too obvious to even the blind and deaf that he didn't believe a single word that came from his mouth and was merely reciting stuff from memory.

Or the paper in front of him, as that was the most likely case. The fact that he was holding it in front of him and looking down every half sentence only served to reinforce that assumption. Kenny certainly didn't consider the speech worthy of memorising.

And even if it hadn't been obvious, the knowledge that he was one of the few teachers that pushed strongly for individuality and pursuit of own interests in his students easily made the words currently spewing from his mouth comically hypocritical.

Kenny himself had merely stopped listening once the lecture started. As amusing as it was to watch the man torture himself that way, it also quickly became dull after that first day. It was unlikely that he was the only one, but in this case, it was blatant that he wasn't paying any kind of attention. The others, with a couple of exceptions, at least tried to look engrossed with Takagami's words. Kenny had laid his head on his folded arms and closed his eyes, well and fully in view of the teacher, just moments after the ridiculous lecture had begun.

 _I'll just bring a book tomorrow._

It was boring as hell, the five minutes it was going to take before the bell rang felt more like hours. It was only by regularly looking at the wall mounted clock in the front of the class that he could convince himself that time hadn't stopped or gone into some kind of inexplicable loop, and even then, he felt like someone had messed with the clock.

When the bell finally did ring, Takagami gave a deep sigh of relief, said his goodbyes and left, while the students of 2-B were either eager to go or lazily packing their things. Lethargy was keeping Kenny from moving from his relatively comfortable spot, he wanted to whoop for his now earned freedom but didn't feel like it, he wanted away as quickly as possible but couldn't be arsed with moving. So, he dully observed his surroundings.

The minutes ticked by as the room slowly emptied of people until he was alone… and annoyed, intensely so.

No one said, 'see you' or 'bye'… He actually _wanted_ someone to say that, if only for formality's sake. Introvert he may be, but he _hated_ being ignored like that when he was in some way expecting social contact.

A quick glance at the too loud clock led him to expel an explosive sigh. He wasn't up to this; he didn't feel it or damn well need it...

Eight- with the sole exception of English- soul-sucking classes a day, four days a week and five on Fridays.

 _Would someone kindly kill me? Is some mercy too much to ask for?_

A groan escaped him, he would have to memorise the damnable squiggles again today... It felt like hadn't gotten anywhere last night, and he doubted he would get any further today. While he hadn't lied to Takagami about having previous knowledge of the language, it had been far too easy to forget the different characters that made up the written word as there had never been an occasion that necessitated that specific knowledge.

Never had he regretted that as much as he did now…

He didn't want to stay here but he didn't want to return to the apartment either, he also had no idea as to where to go if he wanted to do something. Even if he did, chances where he would get lost either searching for the place or when it–

He had barely started to think through his limited options when the vibrations from his silenced phone called his attention. Checking the number didn't provide him with any clues as to who was calling, so he reluctantly answered what was liable to be a salesman.

"It's been fifteen minutes now, you haven't joined a club, have you? What about me playing guide, are you just going to leave me hanging out here?!" The female, and quite tearful, voice coming through the receiver was a more pleasant surprise.

Marginally so... he still hated phones and getting called, or calling someone for that matter... The list of exceptions to that particular law of the universe was short.

"Sakaki-san?"

"You're evil!" Came the wailed answer from the other side of the receiver.

"… I have a feeling I know why you and your husband got married..."

"Huh?" came the puzzled answer from the receiver, a temporary pause in the fake crying.

"You both have a habit of creating scenarios where bickering is the only way out."

"Huh?" the exact same sound, he could almost imagine her tilting her head to the side with a look of sheer confusion on her features with how sincere it sounded.

"Touya doesn't do that, he's generally more strait-laced than that..." she informed.

Before he could get a word in edgewise to stir up a little drama, Aiko continued, "Well, he's a doctor and tend to act in a way that best meshes with the person he's talking with. Also, you tend to start it… Well, perhaps he simply likes doing it with you." She said simply as if that explained everything. "Besides, our romance is a little more interesting than us meeting in some bar, starting to bicker before getting married and having a child…"

The informative tone cut off and took on a more eager tint, "So, when do you intend to come down here? I made my afternoon free to hang out!"

He sighed, half disappointed in having his fun ruined before it could even start and slightly curious about the cut-off sounding answer that had been provided. Curious, but not in the mood to pursue further inquiry. Aiko seemed more into the idea of showing him around than talking, anyway.

He could bring up their shared 'bondage fetish' later, and whether or not Touya was the one being tied with the 'lace'. Would be a lot more fun to do when the duo were together anyway.

"Just let me gather my stuff and then I'll be down."

"Hurry up, or I'll leave you here!" The call cut off her singsong voice.

Kenny looked at his phone, an eyebrow raised at the, to him, unusual exuberance of the woman. While she had passed off as someone that was fun loving, he had assumed she had more patience than she was currently showing, never mind that she was usually calm.

Well, calmer… Actually, given a second to think about it, he wasn't too surprised and could all too easily imagine her acting like this. There was a difference that he couldn't place, though…

He picked up his bag and made for the door, knowing that wondering about it wasn't going to get him anywhere when he was liable to get the answer soon regardless.

That didn't stop him from having a bad feeling based on previous experiences of similar occurrences. Granted, some of them wound up giving him a good time, but he still liked to trust his instincts in these regards.

He opened the door, finding the sliding mechanism of it, while the most practical regarding saving space, the ugliest feature of the building. The place would keep up its air of an authentic mansion better if it was the standard pull and push doors that one would expect.

 _At least they kept with a dark wood instead of a painted white…_

Perhaps it was his bias speaking, he had a problem with those doorknobs that some countries used instead of proper handles, as well.

Stepping out, he noticed that there was something of a commotion in the corridor. While not enough to be a problem, it was a definite disturbance in the general calm of the bustling crowd. The crowd itself was a feature that he couldn't help but take notice of; while noticeably less than when he was heading for the cafeteria, there was still a surprisingly high number of people populating the area, very much like the previous day. He could only assume it was because the daily club activities had yet to start, but he frankly didn't know at which time they did.

Not that it mattered, his economy wouldn't allow him to join one even if he had wanted to.

About half of said crowd had moved down one side of the corridor, standing grouped together next to the stairs, which seemed to be the centre of their gathering. The conversations going on in it were jumbled and indistinguishable, not aided by the talking of the others that weren't part of it.

Although slightly curious, he didn't feel interested enough or at home going over there to check it out for himself.

With one side cut off, he started to lightly zigzag toward the second set of stairs, not as paranoid as he perhaps should be. Even so, he widened his field of vision to at least try to catch any looks sent his way. He didn't know whether to be proud or disgruntled of picking one up barely halfway down the corridor, then another, and another...

He picked frustration, though whether it was turned towards himself or the others, even he wasn't sure.

Harder was to catch anything being said that could involve him... but then again, he wasn't bullied, so it should have been kept low-key.

 _For now, at least..._

That was a cheery thought, he should join the cheerleaders' association if he could continue to pull off that kind of positive thinking time and again.

He increased his pace, deciding that it would be for the better to stop measuring the people in his surroundings, lest he'd only dig a hole for himself to fall into.

Or perhaps not, it was the suspense of not knowing that was making him paranoid, and he was all too aware of it. It was like he was watching a pair of scales sway from one side to the other while having a vested interested in one of the outcomes. Like sitting on a lottery ticket, knowing that you could win the grand prize at best, or lose the equivalent sum at worst.

But that was only the feeling, he knew that the truth was that it wasn't that bad, there wouldn't be a world-ending event regardless of the outcome. To quote a cliché; 'the dog's bark was worse than the bite'. Imagining either was far scarier than what reality could push on him, so he wanted the outcome to come quickly so that he wouldn't have to deliberate about where he was standing in relation to others.

He sighed painfully as he came upon the rows of shoe lockers...

 _Great going, Kenny, which row was your locker on again?_

4 or 5 from the right, as seen from the entrance?

He really should have counted them this morning instead of just walking past them without a second thought...

 _Who the hell cares about the different shoes anyway? It may have been cleaner to leave the outdoor shoes here, but that's not a reason to use indoor ones. Or is it possible to get cancer by touching someone else's foot sweat through your socks?_

He paused a second in his rant to analyse that question.

 _OK, that does sound disgusting when I think about it..._

Not much of an incentive to switch shoes either way, but it did stop his rant long enough for him to get down row 4 before starting on another one. As it stood, he hit the jackpot and could switch out his shoes without further fuzz.

The jacket was left off as he exited the building, the pleasant warmth a direct contrast to the weather days prior. He could finally say that spring had come into full swing, and not merely by the earth's position in relation to the sun, but in weather as well. He wasn't going to abandon his jacket yet, least of all in the mornings or evenings, but it wouldn't be needed as much as it had been.

Assuming it wouldn't become overcast, it seemed to pull down the temperature by quite a bit in this town.

Moving along with the minor stream of students, Kenny exited through the gates and turned off the main road the moment he passed the bridge. It was wholly the wrong way if he was heading back to the apartment, but the closest parking lot that he knew of, discounting the one on school grounds used by the staff, was a little over a block away

He just caught sight of said lot when his phone once again began to vibrate, still being silenced. Seeing as it was the last number to have called him being displayed on the screen, he had a good idea who it was.

"I see the lot, Sakaki-san. There's no need for you to cry anymore, I'll be there in a couple of minutes…" He answered in a flat tone, cutting her off before she could start her little game again.

"… you're no fun…" His lips quirked upward at the dejected sound. He wasn't sure why it felt like such a victory to hear those words, but he would take it regardless.

"You're supposed to be knocking on the car window just as or right after you answer!"

Had he been in a better mood he could have tried to do that, but as it were, Kenny hadn't even thought of doing so, though he doubted he would have even if he were in the mood.

"I'm gonna go out on a whim and make a wild guess; you were waiting for the exact moment when I came up to the window so that you could turn to me and say something about me being late, predictable, or not fast enough?"

"… all three, actually…" The depressed answer, much like a child that had its favourite toy taken away, immediately called to mind a picture of her dejectedly making small circles on the steering wheel, a small pout on her face and a raincloud above her head. It was as amusing as it was adorable.

"Are you pouting?" He couldn't help but tease. Finding the car near where the married couple had dropped him off previously, he headed for it.

"I am _not_ pouting!" came the defensive answer, making him snort.

"I am pretty sure that you are." He bent over to look through the window of the car, finding Aiko turning around in her seat towards him with a dejected look.

"I am not!"

Taking down the phone from his ear, Kenny ended the call; "Right, you're not. Mind unlocking the door?"

Instead of doing that, she huffed and crossed her arms, giving a half-hearted glare on the dashboard. The first few seconds of this was amusing, even somewhat endearing, but it all too quickly it turned into annoyance as she proved that she refused to move either her gaze or herself from her assumed position.

He wasn't even sure where this particular wave of frustrations came from, but he'd hazard a guess and say that he had only been given a temporary respite from the negative thoughts. The continuation of a 'game' that his mood demanded be stopped the moment it ceased being amusing was simply the key necessary to reopen the gates.

 _*KNOCK, KNOCK*_

As she looked over she was met by an overwhelmingly irritated look, taking her by surprise if the widening of the eyes were any indication. It went somewhat against his policy to put his bad mood on an innocent party, but she got the message that fun-time was over and opened the door with a mumbled apology. Taking his seat and losing himself in his grumbling thoughts, Kenny didn't notice the glances the woman sent him, nor the frown she carried as she silently started the car, pulled it out from the parking lot and onto the road.

There was relatively little traffic on the streets that surrounded the academy. Similarly, there was low activity around the tightly packed two-storey residences that were built along them. An elderly woman going for a walk with a younger woman and a few students, some wearing his uniform, were either walking or cycling off somewhere. A classic brick, half meter-high wall and bushes provided some privacy from what the gazes of wandering pedestrians while also sectioning off the plot from the neighbouring homes.

"So…" He turned his limited attention from the world outside the car over to the female Sakaki, giving a grunt in acknowledgement, "… bad day?"

He sat silent for a second before giving another grunt, this time carrying with it a clear answer, or rather, correction; "Days…"

She didn't take her eyes off the road, watching the cars coming from both directions in the T-section for an opening to drive through and onto the main road as she asked; "School?"

There was only one viable answer, so he gave it with feeling, "Crap…"

There was a short pause before he elaborated with a sigh, "Well, it isn't only that I suppose, the jet lag and the stress of dealing with the move have finally caught up with me. The last couple of months have also been rather stressful…"

The former was a lesser issue, having turned his day around as best he could before he got on the flight from Canada westward. But as much as he had prepared to handle the difference in time zones, there was still some backlash in the form of a cranky mood.

 _Not that anyone would notice…_

"So, what triggered you? And don't give me that look, Kaoru isn't the only one that's a good judge of character… not that that is a necessity in this case. You plain and simply don't seem like the kind of person to have a short temper, quite the opposite, I would call you mild-mannered and patient. But then again, we don't know each other that well and we all tend to act differently in front of strangers."

His eyebrow returned down to its brother, turning the inquisitive expression into a frown.

"What makes you think I was triggered?"

"The description that Touya gave me when he returned from your little trip last night involved; 'darkened eyes', 'wanted to bite my head off' and 'wanting to be left alone to vent himself on something destructible'. Those very same eyes were directed towards me a few minutes ago… _Appreciate_ that, by the way."

She sent him a mild glare to accentuate the point.

"Yeah…" He sighed out sincerely; "Sorry about that."

"Apology accepted. Now, spill."

Kenny drummed his fingers on the door panel in frustration, only to stop and give a dry chuckle; "From the moment that I entered the classroom some guys were openly glaring at me, some of them continued to do so throughout homeroom at that. The guy in front of me actually turned around in his seat, during homeroom, several times, to do so. Adding the undue hostility on top of having had to wrestle with that fucking moped of mine that morning on top of the other stuff… Let's just say that whatever patience I had was running out quickly."

He paused in his explanation, wiggling around in his seat to find a more comfortable position to sit, working against the seatbelt. Quickly seeing it for the losing battle that it was, he gave up and sighed tiredly; "They swamped me at my desk, talking into each other's mouths… and with me being an introvert, and loving my personal space… Well, I _blew_ up. Stood up, and practically told them to go fuck themselves. Well, at least that's how I think it translated over, 'shut the fuck up' could be interpreted in several ways, it seems."

In retrospect, there were a couple of things he could have done to alleviate, or even prevent, his outburst from happening. Discounting not going to school, which was quickly becoming a _very_ viable option, he could have been forthcoming with his mood from the beginning, provide a warning during his introduction. Even if he didn't, he could have just pushed his way through the throng before exploding, or even have left the classroom during homeroom while giving a half-assed excuse for it if he didn't feel like explaining why he was currently boiling over.

Alternatively, he could have called the guy out on his glaring, confronted him. Not the best way to go, but it was a better one than blowing up. The, hopefully, resulting argument would have helped him vent off some of the steam, assuming it didn't go straight into his shit-bag.

He was kicking himself for not thinking of doing any of those other things. It would take a while to swallow that particular pill.

He was pulled out of his sullen thoughts by the guffaw that the woman in the driver's seat was trying her utmost to suppress, lest she'd lose control of the vehicle.

Kenny levelled deadpan look while Aiko tried and failed to get herself back under control.

"And what, exactly, is it that's so funny about that…?" he growled out with little effect.

"So- sorry...!" Aiko snorted out, trying to control her bubbling laughter. "I just- I never thought anyone would ever do anything like that! Oh, I'm beat! You beat me!"

As his guide continued laughing herself mad, Kenny could only dryly thank god that she had had the presence of mind to stop the vehicle... even if that came with its own set of irritations, namely the honking cars right behind them.

At least she had stopped at a streetlight, even if it had been green.

~-o0 April 20th, Wednesday, 2016 0o- ~

The tune of Belinda Carlisle's Heaven Is a Place on Earth is coming from the newly installed loudspeakers as Kenny taps away on his laptop, redoing the calculations for his monthly living. The resulting numbers weren't surprising, but they were unwanted.

 _Roughly half a month of my savings up in smoke…_

All that in one shopping trip…

In the positive was that his limited selection of clothes had been drastically increased, even if he still was far off from filling his closet. He had become more familiar with the area around the station, but best of all was finding the clothing boutique catering specifically to the needs of westerners. They even had shoes his size! That happened far too seldom in his mind.

Also, his mood had once again improved, much thanks to the neighbour woman's own cheerful mood dragging up his own.

The negatives?

One, the store was pricey due to having to special order everything.

Two, he had been convinced into buying more than he strictly needed. That was more of an irritation than a concern, though, he could always use them as his more used everyday clothes got worn out.

And three, the engraving kit that was now situated on his living room table was a wholly unnecessary purchase. That was his own fault, however, he hadn't fought back at all when Aiko suggested buying it after catching him nostalgically looking at it. He had even made sure that the set contained everything he needed and then some, even getting a few drinking glasses to engrave. No thanks to Aiko, who continued to pull out glassware that he couldn't possibly work with, all with a cheeky smile.

Add then the healthy stack of books he had bought from the bookstore…

Saving and exiting the document, he gave his back a good stretch before looking at the wall mounted clock, grumbling a bit at confirming the time.

17:46

Forty-five minutes till babysitting duty. It was, technically, a first, but not anything he was too worried about. He knew Kaoru well enough, and it wasn't like she was a four-year-old that needed help going to the toilet. It was filling the time until then that was the problem. He could have worked on the interior decorations, putting up the pictures, paintings and shelves around the rooms, move around the furniture, but thanks to a bit of prodding from Aiko it had been done after returning from their shopping trip yesterday.

The apartment now looked like an actual home, even if it didn't feel like one to him, rather than a furniture exhibit with randomly placed furniture all over the floor. It took the whole evening to get everything set up, no thanks to Aiko. Literally, word for word in this case, since she was the one desperately trying to speed things up while Kenny spent most of his time making mental pictures of how to set things up in a most aesthetically pleasing way possible. Interspersed were bursts of movement were the apartments landscape rapidly changed to match his current idea.

It was only after setting things up in a basic and practical use of space, one that anyone would have thought of, that Aiko knew she had been messed with. Perhaps it was the amused smile he gave her as she looked incredulously at him that tipped her off? She had really deflated after that, turned around and exited the apartment with a tired goodbye, barely audible over Kenny's laughter.

It hadn't entirely been a waste of time, though, placing the frames had required him to take quite a few turns around the rooms to find suitable placements, and turning the furniture on its metaphorical head had helped in getting ideas when it came to that venture. Secondly, and most obvious, it did give ideas as to how he would place the furniture once he was done playing around. Even if the clear majority of said ideas would be scrapped, none of them were a waste of time or effort.

 _Though I'm sure Aiko disagrees._

Poor woman really didn't know what she got herself into with that one, but it wasn't only the idea of pulling her leg that entertained him, that was just the 'laugh my guts out' part of it. The deeper, and in some ways more satisfying, part was experimenting with the subtle changes in the atmosphere of the room, that wasn't due to the Sakaki wife's mounting frustrations – still, she stubbornly stayed there until he was done, despite his gentle suggestions of letting him handle it–, and personality.

 _A guy, home alone, on a Wednesday evening… Did I look through the ads yesterday…? Or today…? God, I need to get a life if that's the most exciting thing I can come up with to keep myself entertained…_

There had been no sorting of the mail lying on the counter beyond there being separate piles for the days, and even that had been mostly because he hadn't put the piles remotely in the same spot. Not that there was any necessity to sort through it, he wasn't anticipating anything important to be arriving by mail until the end of April or, more likely, during May.

The day's pile was lying closest to him, so it was the one he got started on. There wasn't much of interest in the small pile, most of it he couldn't read even if he had really wanted to, making them useless to him. They were quickly discarded, to be thrown into the trash. The interesting things, those being the ads for the three competing grocery stores in the area, had arrived during the weekend. He didn't need to be able to read Japanese to see the items on sale and compare prices on the foodstuff.

The Tuesdays pile was equally small, being composed of a few fliers rather than the magazine-like one-pagers that tended to come back home. They were flashy, and he recognised one as the one that was being handed out during his little excursion to the diner.

Didn't mean he wouldn't need a cryptologist to understand it.

Putting that one to the side, he could only raise an eyebrow at the comparatively plain paper that was hiding among its ostentatious comrades, becoming far more glaring and noticeable for it. The paper was tan, almost leathery in appearance, with a framed, black box, at the top and bottom of it with white writing in it. The brown, painting-like, frames were garnished with rosebushes. Two small naked and featureless ladies were painted onto the paper, a redhead seemingly lying on an invisible bed along the side of the right-top side of the paper, ninety degrees off the writing, covering her modesty with an arm while holding onto the frame.

The nether woman had black hair and was on near full display as she sat with her legs crossed and an arm draped over the side of her own sign, the other hand balancing her sitting position. There were even some bats near the roses on the bottom. But the most noticeable part of the flier was the series of circles, stars and quarter moons that made up the centrepiece in an accurate representation of one of those magical ritual circles one would find in a fantasy setting.

It was an original design for a piece of advertisement, definitely something that got a person to look twice. It was also just like any other Japanese ad: impossible to figure out the service or item being offered without context or familiarity with the language. Beyond that, however, it wasn't of much interest to him and thusly discarded, quickly followed by a last card-like flier.

 _Now there was a good use of not even five minutes of your time, Kenny. Now you indeed have a life to be proud of! Next step, get a camera and take some pictures of food, then get Facebook or Twitter and post them there. And selfies! Lots of selfies. Now that's some next level shit right there! Better be careful not to get heartburn from all that life going on! Or depression from all the fake appreciation I'll get from my posted pictures of food…_

"Kill me…" Kenny let out a long, suffering sigh, he didn't feel like reading, doubted there was anything interesting on TV and playing a game didn't sound all that attractive. At least no more attractive than watching the clock tick the seconds away…

Homework…?

He did have some, but he was gonna to have to decline.

 _Suppose I could watch some porn…_

He was _almost_ disappointed that that thought didn't get him moving…

"…we can build this dream together, standing strong together~, everything's damn well stopping me now… … … … ah, fuck this…"

He slapped his cheeks, pulled himself together and stood up, moving around the counter and into the kitchen for something cold to drink. Picking out a cola bottle and nursing a glass, he contemplated the open fridge, trying to think of an easy to make supper for himself and Kaoru when she finally got there.

~-o0 20 Minutes Later 0o- ~

Kenny was quickly coming to the realisation that he was developing a love-hate relationship with the bell on his door. The hate he knew of already, it was one of the most irritating sounds he could think of on top of his head in this new life of his, second only to the sound of his phone ringing. But just like with his phone, there were times, limited though they may have been, that they saved him.

In a manner of speaking, of course.

Saved from having to speak to a specific person to, in this case, being rescued from the unending boredom of having nothing to do, these were the moments where he got the closest to saying that he loved them.

... as much as a person could love the lesser of two evils, as it sometimes were.

So, it was with a strange sense of relief that he got up from his zombie-like position on the couch, walked over to the door and opened it. The first thing that met him was the costume-clad façade of Touya, the second was the emptiness of the hallway the man stood in.

The latter was the obvious peculiarity, remedied by the open door that was marked 410.

"Aiko is still getting prepared, and Kaoru is finishing up some of her homework…" The neighbour dad clarified, effectively making Kenny stop leaning out of his apartment to check while yawning mid-sentence.

"When, exactly, did you return from the hospital?" While the yawn wasn't a good indication, either way, a closer look on the man's face and overall posture made the lack of sleep clear as day. Touya's ordinarily straight back was now slouched together with his shoulders, and Kenny could identify a couple of new lines on his face. Overall, the man looked ten years older than when they last saw each other.

"Got there a quarter past one and got back at around two this afternoon…"

"Are you sure you're up to going out? I can keep Kaoru out of your hair for a few hours, the two of you could simply enjoy a relaxing evening alone. Or you could just go to sleep. Frankly, you look like you need another year of hibernation before doing much of anything…"

"That's what I've been saying for the last hour…" Aiko's voice came from the only other open door, soon followed by the mildly displeased looking woman herself that threw her husband an equally annoyed look. The man himself merely shrugged, as if to say that there was nothing he could do about the situation, making her sigh while straightening out her dark dress.

"Give up while you're ahead, my beloved saviour here does not like to squander the chances he gets to be with me, even if the idiot himself suffers for it. He's been like that ever since I got him to fall for me." What shallow bite the words had was dispelled by the hug she gave his arm and the small, proud grin she flashed him.

Kenny watched with an amused smile as Touya straightened out his back in pride before following Aiko's advice, instead focusing on the continued absence of the youngest of their family.

"Now, where is Kaoru? We're gonna have to head out for groceries if she's expecting to get anything to eat…"

Giving a glance towards her apartment, Aiko sighed in exasperation and disengaged herself from her husband. "I'll fetch her… I swear, that girl does everything to evade her homework, but when she finally gets down to doing it…"

The two men watched her leave, "Does she shut down completely?"

Touya scoffed, "It's a good enough explanation for the phenomena that's Kaoru's studying habits, and it's not like Aiko says anything to her other than giving last day reminders… Truthfully, she's more amused by it than frustrated. They get done, and Kaoru gets good enough marks, but she's as interested in schoolwork as her mother ever was."

"Ah, that would explain what Aiko said yesterday." Kenny thought.

"What did she say?" Kenny jumped slightly, while it didn't matter, he hadn't meant to mumble the thought out loud.

 _At least he doesn't look insulted at the slip-up..._

Pushing the thought out of his mind, he shrugged, "I explained to her what happened on that first day of school, I don't suppose she told you anything about it…?" Touya merely shook his head in the negative.

"Well, for your benefit, I'll keep it brief. Stress, frustration and anger, add the glares I got from some of my new classmates, even during class, and then getting swamped at my desk, got me to blow up. I told them to 'shut the hell up and speak one at a goddamn, fucking time'. Word for word, if I recall correctly…"

He gave a frustrated sigh. _Another couple of days and it should be out of my system, just have to hang in there…_

"Anyway… When I told your wife, she broke down crying in laughter, saying something along the lines of me having beaten her." Kenny made air quotes on 'beaten her'. "I didn't know what she was referring to at the time, but if she didn't like school, then I have some idea as to what she could have done."

"Don't bother getting random ideas and just ask her…"

Kenny gave a fake sullen look, "But it's more fun that way! I know that they say that reality is stranger than fiction, but it can't be possible in this case!" He finished by giving the man a 'duh'-look with a small smirk.

"Leaving future interrogations of your missus mysterious past aside, where are you heading and when can I expect you to be back?"

Touya gave a shrug, "There is a small establishment roughly two miles outside of outer Kuoh that we tend to frequent."

"Five-star restaurant?"

"More like a four-star dancing lounge. They do have some good food and drink, but most that frequent the place does so for the dancefloor. Anyway, I'm not sure when we'll be back. Normally, we could be there all night, but with me being as tired as I am…"

Touya gave a half-hearted chuckle while combing back his grey spotted black hair, usually the only sign of the stress his job regularly put him through, with his hand into his distinct, if messy, back slick.

The blonde hummed in thought, "I had a nagging feeling that was the case… Oh well, there's no problem for me to simply make the guest room and let Kaoru sleep there. I can also make sure she gets up in the morning and take her to school if you want me to."

"I would certainly like to sleep in on my days' off…" Both Kenny and Touya turned to Aiko, who stood outside of the Sakakis' apartment waiting for Kaoru, holding a long coat over her shoulder and a child-sized jacket in the other hand. "That said, I don't want to take advantage of your kindness."

Kenny snorted and rolled his eyes, "As far as I'm concerned, I'm in debt to the two of you for your patience and help these last few days. I may have asked, but the two of you have been far more accommodating than I have had any right to expect you to be. Seeing as paying back with money isn't much of an option for me, this is one of the few ways I can do so..."

He shrugged his shoulders and continued; "Besides, I do personally not see much of a difference with a couple of hours here or there or me taking her to school as part of my sitting her. I'll understand if you don't trust me enough to let me, though."

Kenny took on a smug, theatrical look; "That being said, _don't_ trust me, you gullible little fools. I'm little more than an acquaintance, and you do frankly not have enough material on me to trust me holding your drink while you tie your shoelaces, never mind babysitting your little study horse of a daughter."

To his amusement, said 'study horse', having exited with a bag in hand, pulled down her left eyelid with a finger and blew him a raspberry. The adults of the following had a more mature response, with Touya looking somewhere between thoughtful and amused.

"It's not that we don't trust you,-" Aiko began, "but we don't want to inconv-"

"Ok, we'll trust you to handle it." Her husband interrupted. "Are you comfortable with staying the night and letting Nilsson-san take you to school tomorrow, Kaoru?"

"Sure!" The girl shrugged, having no problem with the setup.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I think it's about time that we-… Why are you two looking at me like that?"

Kenny and Aiko exchanged looks, "I honestly thought that she -" Kenny thumbed towards the older woman, "-would be the one to agree to it… The overprotective dad image I had of you have been successfully shattered."

"Don't throw it out just yet…" Aiko joked before giving Kenny a serious look, "Look, it's not that I don't trust you, it's just…" her face scrunched up in thought, searching for the words to explain a concept she knew intrinsically, yet had never had to explain to an outsider.

The blonde foreigner patiently waited for her to find a way to explain it, feeling it was better to have it explained to him instead of arriving at the wrong conclusion.

Luckily for her, she had Touya to pick up the explanation when it became apparent that she was going to have a hard time with it. "Here in Japan, it's a polite courtesy to insist, regardless of whether you're the giver or taker, in any given situation. Experience has taught me that it isn't a universal custom."

 _That's for sure... Feel like I've just had the existence of colours confirmed with my own eyes with this, though._

It was a confirmed suspicion, one that went a way to explain the occurrences in anime where a character just refused to stop insisting. Turns out that assuming that it was a personal incapability to take a 'no' was wrong... there were too many of those characters for it to be a simple character trait, anyway.

"Well, leaving cultural dissonance aside, I really think it's time for us to get going. We can discuss payment later..."

 _The only discussion to be had if you insist on paying me for this is how far up your arse I should shove the money, doc..._

They weren't even going to pay for the food if he had any say in the matter. And he would have a say in it.

Didn't mean he couldn't appreciate a payment, though. God knew he needed an income.

Still, as the man said, it was a discussion for another time, and there was one more pressing question to ask before they left.

"Right... One question before you leave; is your study horse allergic to anything?"

Last time he checked, nearly killing and sending the neighbour kid to the hospital because of an allergic reaction _was not_ one of the best ways to endear oneself to the parents.

Aiko gave the answer, a single, long sounding word.

He pondered it but found himself utterly clueless as to the meaning of the word that passed her lips.

"Ok, you'll need to clarify, because I don't know that word…" He couldn't even discern the two meanings of it, and he did assume that one of them was something that could be construed as intolerant...

"[Lactose intolerant. But that is not entirely unexpected, what with the overall percentage of people in this country not being able to consume dairy products…]" Touya provided in English, not at all stumbling over the pronunciations' as Kenny had come to expect after witnessing the slaughtering of the English language in class, a class led by a guy actually raised in Britain. No one could say that Matsuda didn't give it his all when reading from the textbook, but neither could they say that he had in any way abandoned using katakana as a basis for how to pronounce the foreign words.

It had been hard not to laugh his ass off at the expense of the others, some of the time he couldn't make out what they wanted to say at all, and they were all reading out of the same textbook; he had made sure to confirm that was the case.

"Right…" Kenny repeated the word that Aiko had given him a couple of times, attempting to memorise it. "Nothing that's going to kill her if consumed, then."

"Vomiting and stomach pains aren't fun either way…"

"It can get that bad, huh…? Alright; no milk. I doubt I will find many products containing something that most of the population can't stomach in the stores anyway. And it's not like what I've got planned requires dairy products. Is there anything else I should be aware of?"

The pair shook their heads after a second of thought.

"Right then. You can leave the bag in here Kaoru, if you expect to get dinner, we're gonna have to go out shopping."

She lit up, "Are we going on your bike?"

"No, the shopping district is close enough to walk, for one. And two, it's an unnecessary expense. Don't like it, but I have to live the stingy lifestyle…" Kaoru had deflated and walked into the apartment long before he had finished listing his second reason, leaving her backpack on the floor by the entrance.

"Ok, I'm done! Let's go!" She bounded out again, grabbing hold of his hand and giving it a hard tug, successfully pulling him out of his apartment.

"Ok, ok ok…! Can you at least let me lock my door? Shouldn't either of you say anything to her?" he asked incredulously to Touya and Aiko, only to find them already leaving and halfway down the hall.

"Have fun Kaoru! And make sure not to stay up too late!" Answered the doctor with another yawn, completely ignoring the blondes call, a laughing Aiko on his arm waving back to her daughter.

"Ha~i! C'mon Onii-san, we have to get go-ing." She exerted some more force in her pull, making him move away from his still open door and into the hallway.

 _Seriously? You're just gonna leave? Without telling her to behave or take it easy on me?_

He couldn't help but feel that Aiko was trying to pay him back for messing with her earlier. Where Kaoru always this energetic?

 _Who the hell am I kidding, kids always turn out like this when they're with me!_

Kenny went over his options, quickly finding the easiest way to deal with the overeager girl, this being to swoop down, pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, causing Kaoru to whoop in surprise and laughter as she half-heartedly struggled against the hold.

"Lemme go!"

"Not happening, study horse." He answered in humour, going back inside to fetch his keys, jacket and shoes with the fidgeting child still on his shoulder. The 'opening' that putting on his shoes provided was used by Kaoru to escape his hold and run out into the hallway.

This left Kenny, sitting on the edge of his genkan after falling over, with a bruised lower back from hitting the porch and struggling against giving a more verbal reaction than a painful hiss.

 _ **Bloody fucking**_ _,_ _ **cock sucking, pussy-cocked arse!**_ _Think my tailbone just went into early retirement..._

"You alright, Onii-san?" The girl stood in the hallway, looking wondering at him before coming back inside. "Did you get hurt? I'm sorry, Onii-san, I didn't mean to."

She looked more severe than remorseful, standing there with her hand held out for him to take. Or perhaps resolved was a better word for it, the tone of her voice was truthful, and she refused to shy away, despite the apparent nervousness that she was trying, and failing, to hide.

It was like watching John Coffey being led to the electric chair, asking not to wear the hood and holding hands. Not as dramatic, and nowhere near as serious, but he somehow got the same vibe…

It made it hard to judge her – not like he was going to, she was a playing child, and he had no expectation of her taking everything into consideration – or be angry with her, which he wasn't, and he started to wonder if this was another part of her manipulative capabilities. He had seen the effect she had on her parents and suffered a small part of it himself when he had grown tired of playing with her, but this was a little too effective.

Kenny shook off the feeling best he could and grabbed hold of her hand, using the other to push himself up using the porch. His backside didn't wholly agree with the movement, but he pushed through the ache.

"Don't look like that, Kaoru, accidents happen…" He reassured as he got back on his feet. Letting his hand lightly trace over the aching area, he hissed. If the lightly bleeding scrape stung this bad from barely being touched, then he wasn't looking forward to having his jeans chafe against it while walking.

Deciding against going through with the admittedly stupid idea of willingly turning his torso to aggravate the pain receptors further, he bent forward to finish putting on his other shoe.

"Shouldn't you at least put on a band-aid? Or a... What are they called again?" Kaoru made a show of trying to mime out a... something, leaving Kenny somewhat amused at the show. But even as she stopped swinging the imagined bandage around like a gymnast's ribbon and tying it around her midsection, he couldn't remember the Japanese word for it.

 _There's another thing I'll have to buy…_

"Well, if you figure out the word for it, tell me. For now, though, there's not much I can do about it since I have neglected to buy either…"

"Well, I'm sure we have some at home!"

"Don't bother, this won't bother me in ten minutes. Besides, how are we supposed to enter when your parents have already left?" He answered evenly.

"I have my own key?" she flashed him a ring of keys, tossing it up and down in one hand while giving him a smug look, one that he answered with a blank one.

 _I somehow feel like my pride will take a hit if I admit that I didn't think of that … and now she's out the door…_

He sighed and stiffly followed the altogether too smug girl out, locking the door behind him.

"You do know that I really don't need anything for this injury, right?"

Sure, it stung with every movement he did, and his t-shirt was sticking to it due to the blood attempting to soak in… on second thought, that was more than a little uncomfortable, even if he had no problem with the shirt being bloodied.

"Don't say that, _kansen-sho_ aren't fun…"

 _Kansen-sho? Infection, perhaps...? I really need to put more work into learning those medical oriented terms, or at least learn the word for scrape…_

He sighed, "I doubt I'll get an infection, but you win… Besides, getting something to cover the injury would likely feel better than letting it stick to my shirt."

Kaoru, looking pleased with having 'won the argument' like one would a competition, unlocked the door to the Sakaki apartment and disappeared inside.

Kenny entered after her with an exasperated shake of his head. Taking off his shoes, he headed directly for the living room to wait for the child, ignoring the precarious rustling of plastic and clanking of bottles that said child was producing in the bathroom and the fact that she had neglected to invite him.

He took a seat in one of the kitchen chairs and looked around in curiosity. While he had been there before, he had never gotten a real chance to study the place at the fear of being rude.

His neighbour's apartment was a carbon copy of his own when it came to dimensions and placement of the rooms, he knew that, but that was where most of the similarities ended.

Intricate looking, black-to-grey and white wallpapers covered the walls in circles, drops, spade-like forms and gently curving protrusions.

There was a black, L-shaped sofa in the right corner, the one that would have been his bedroom, the back facing the windows and the balcony. Next to it, along the bedroom wall, stood a large bookcase filled to the brim with books.

In front of said sofa was a long glass table, white in colour, and on the other side were two armchairs, also black. A wall mounted tv was on the other wall, a bureau.

All these things were easy to pick up, as were the family's seeming love for nature. Potted plants dotted the room some in full bloom, others on the brink of budding, the windowsill, in particular, had little room left to spare. There was one on the kitchen table, and one on the glass table, another palm-like one next to the sofa and yet others hanging off wall mounted pots.

It gave the room some character and much-needed colour.

The kitchen wasn't exempt from the floral invasion, but that was the only thing that was truly different from his own. At least as far as he knew or could see, he wasn't going to commit the faux pas of entering it without permission.

Amongst the tidy cluster of flowers and plants and flowers and the occasional decorative piece, there were comparatively little that documented the family itself. A picture of a hospital room, Aiko lying in bed with a smile while looking at a small baby that Touya was holding next to her. Kenny was amused to note that the beaming and proud man was in the trademark doctors robe in the picture. Another of the family celebrating a birthday, a dry looking Touya with cake covering over half of his face and a just as messy young Kaoru on his lap, a laughing Aiko next to them with a hand covered in frosting raised for the camera.

Beyond that, there were only a couple of others with people he didn't recognise.

"AHA! There it is!" Kaoru cried in success from the bathroom, pulling him away from his continued study of the room.

She entered the room soon after, a look of pride on her face and a bundle of bandages and three plastic bottles in her arms.

 _What, exactly, is she going to do with all those bottles?_

And what was up with all those bandages?

He gave her a raised eyebrow; "I don't think I'll need all of those things, Kaoru…"

"Don't be a scaredy-cat, Tou-san taught me how to take care of wounds, and I know for a fact that _all_ these things are necessary!" She puffed up in pride, expecting praise, making him smile in light amusement at her exuberance.

"Right, right. Are you going to become a doctor like your dad, then, little sensei?"

She shook her head in the negative.

"Ho~oh… So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

The girl tilted her head to the side, looking out the windows in search for the answer. After a couple of moments of deep thought, she looked at him sheepishly, a hand coming up to scratch the back of her head, "No idea…"

"Want to know a secret? Neither do I." he gave her a conspiratory wink. "Now, why don't we get this thing dressed?"

~-o0O0o- ~

Black hair, put up into a ponytail was bouncing next to long and free-falling brown, chatting loudly about one thing or the other. Meanwhile, Kenny was hopelessly trying to keep up with the tedious conversation he had been roped into.

It had started well enough, a description of the events leading up to the woman's friendship with the Sakakis… no, that was the boring part, he had completely lost interest after she had gotten through the relatively interesting meeting…

… which had been only slightly dull…

That they had lived together for a couple of weeks because of renovations being done to the woman's apartment due to a water leak, was something that, while it would explain some things if he ever met with the three in the same room, was just as interesting as anything else she had come with.

The only thing that truly stuck was that she was a single mom, beyond that he hadn't bothered to remember her name. That had been a one-sided venture, if he didn't know better, he'd say that she was trying to recruit him to be the father.

Or perhaps that was his ego speaking, he wasn't paying attention, after all… When he was allowed to not pay attention, at least, she was somewhat touchy-feely in comparison to the holding-hands-equals-sex culture she was severely failing to represent. Perhaps she was trying to set a record for how often a person can touch another's arm within the timespan of ten minutes… Putting aside the fact that she was probably failing to do so, this was the most physical contact he's had in a week's time, playing and interacting with Kaoru being the exception to that particular count.

He didn't mind it, exactly, but it was often more than enough to snap him out of his own thoughts long enough to give some indifferent, nondescript answer that shouldn't possibly, yet somehow always did, fool the person on the other side of a phone. The fact that the person that was literally walking next to him couldn't recognise it was downright appalling, even if they were strangers to each other.

Then again, perhaps he was slightly harder to read than most... Or maybe people just weren't that observant.

That didn't mean he wasn't at least trying to pay attention, even if chitchatting about…

… _Ships…?_

How in the hell did their one-sided talk arrive at _anything_ that could relate to the maritime stuff? Was she somehow connected with the scouts or something, or was the kid a scout? Did they have scouts in Japan? He seemed to remember that they did… Had they gotten started on tying knots?

Knots? Boats? Knots?

Was her dead whatever a captain or a worker on a ship or boat? Did _she_ work in the industry?

This was why talking about nothing is such a waste of breath, why commenting about the weather was utterly useless. He already knows that the sun shone yesterday, why was it necessary to make a discussion about it? Where is the incentive for him to pay attention? Actually, how in the fuck do you make a discussion about the weather go beyond; 'The sun shone yesterday.' and 'Yes, but they said on TV that it would rain.'?

Do you talk about the erroneous report? The incompetence of the person calling the weather bureau? The fickleness of the wind that moved the cloud, therefore causing it not to rain? Chaos theory?

 _That could work…_

Talking about the chaos theory would engage him, at least for a time.

Now he was _mildly_ interested in how 'they' had gotten the subject of their 'conversation' to boats, but hadn't paid enough attention to come up with an answer on his own. Asking would answer the question, and reveal that he hadn't paid attention, and probably start up another topic that he would find equally dull, leading to even more inattentiveness.

 _An~d now she's onto something else… Please kill me, preferably before I start to seriously contemplate suicide. Murder-suicide. On second thought, not gonna leave that kid there an orphan… suicide it is! Now on to deciding the means by which I'll succumb… should I be immortalised on TV, or is it going to just as painful an existence as I'm suffering now?_

Minor frustration aside, it was a good day to be outdoors. The mid-April weather was indeed in full bloom, with chilly mornings that, at times, cruelly enforced the wearing of a jacket and afternoons that gave glimpses of the coming summer's shorts and t-shirts. Alas, Kuoh was a fully-fledged town, making the places for direct sunlight to hit its occupants rare, even more so in the late afternoon when the sun was easily hidden behind the four to six-story buildings that made up the grey, yet colourful walls of the roads they were walking.

Not that it mattered, the sun had already crossed the western horizon. Kenny particularly lamented that fact as he pulled up the zipper on his hoodie to ward off the wind, especially since the main road of the shopping district was mostly straight in a west-east fashion.

"Well, this is where we part… It was very nice meeting you, Nilsson-kun."

The sentence brought him back from... What had he been thinking about again?

He turned to the woman, trying to ignore the ticked off feeling that naturally accompanied the loss of a thinking process, however unimportant it may have been.

"Well," he began in a hollow attempt to find something polite to say in parting, "I'm sure we'll see each other again."

"I'm looking forward to it…" The woman left much the same way as she had entered their walk, with a bow and a greeting. And a lot of chattering with the nearest viable person... poor child.

"Well… that was interesting…" He stared blankly after the receding pair.

"What?"

"Nothing at all... literally, speaking. How about this; I'll have you in bed at nine, so you keep me awake till then, alright Kaoru?"

She flashed him a cheeky smile, "Nope!"

"Good answer." He chuckled, "Well, let's get the shopping over with before the sun comes back up again."

 _Or some other talkative person that know either you or your parents spots us..._

He was either lucky or severely overestimating the number of people the couple had befriended, but they got the last of the way to the store without any more fuzz than the half-full evening streets generally provided. The store itself was brimming in comparison, forcing the two of them to zigzag through the crowded aisles.

It was smaller than he was used to, granted he had only been there a couple of times, and that was in relation to the supermarkets he had grown used to at home. Still, even in comparison to the grocery stores that he was used to, this was still somewhat on the small side, though he was sure that the congregation of people made it seem even smaller.

It was a good thing he had Kaoru with him, and that the stuff on his list was easily recognisable for the child since her smaller body easily could slip through the near throng that warmed the large room. Abusing her size was a good way to make the basket fill up faster. The fact that she was willingly running back and forth in search of the latest of his groceries was slightly shocking, though he signed that up to her being hungry, bored or plain helpful or some combination thereof.

It was interesting to note her eagerness in helping, mostly because he had expected her to be as helpful as any child ever was, but he shrugged it off. It was noteworthy, but not exactly worth a lengthy thinking process. That didn't stop him from thanking her with a pat on the head when she returned after finding a product that he didn't have to waste time looking for, allowing him to stare dryly as he tried to discern the contents of some of the cans on the shelves.

 _Funny how the labels range from picturing obvious to the useless kanji combinations that would be better suited as a password on a suitcase…_

Giving up on shopping from off the shelves, saving himself at least temporarily from the frustration, he looked over the list of groceries and cross-checked with the foodstuff already in the basket.

"An~d that should be all…"

All that was left was checkout, which was a surprisingly short wait despite the limited registers and over limited population looking to use them.

He packed the groceries as quickly and efficiently as possible, the line behind him becoming a minor source of stress that only lent him more focus on the task.

The outside provided both fresh air, or as fresh as town air could be, and a refreshing cool that all too quickly turned into a plain old cold. It was likely just the quickly escaping heat residue of a store populated above the recommended limit as given by the fire department, but it seemed like it had gotten even colder.

Stopping a bit away, he zipped his jacket closed, "Alright, let's head on back then, Kaoru."

The lack of a distinct answer over the low cacophony that the ever-mobile crowd produced made him turn around, only to find a glaring lack of any dark-haired girls by the name of Sakaki Kaoru, least of all the one he had tagging along with him and was supposed to be watching… He expelled a sigh at the revelation, a frown forming on his brow as he wasted time on scanning the crowd for the eight-year-old.

 _Where did that girl go off to?_

He could have sworn she was behind him, if nothing else she had been beside him in the queue. She couldn't have wandered off in the minute he had packed the groceries, even if she did she couldn't have gotten far.

Kenny didn't move from his spot, he was at least half a head taller than the tallest of the local populous, and his features clearly marked him as a foreigner, too distinct to miss. She was either lagging behind, had wandered off or gotten lost, however unlikely the last option seemed, and there was an increased chance they would miss each other if he started an active search. Besides, his height was an equal detriment since Kaoru only reached his stomach, it was simply easier for him to be spotted than it was for him to locate someone...

He gave a barely audible growl at that fact, resolving himself to stand there for a while before starting his own search.

 _I swear..._

The fact that she hadn't said anything before scurrying off to wherever was the most grating thing about this, if that was the case, then she was going to get a real talking to.

Releasing a worried breath, he checked his phone for the time. Another two things to frustrate himself over; he wasn't sure how much time had passed but it sure felt longer than it probably was, and he remembered that he didn't have her phone number, assuming she even had a phone.

He wasn't sure whether or not Aiko and Touya were people that would give their eight-year-old a phone of her own...

"Onii-san!

Being referred to that way was still outside the realm of the familiar, but the voice that said it sure wasn't. He turned back in the direction towards the store with a displeased look on his face. She either didn't notice or ignored it, instead opting to rustle a small plastic bag containing a white box in front of her with a victorious expression.

The flash of frustration that he got from seeing that carefree face that seemed to mock his worry was quickly and efficiently wrestled into submission.

He sighed and gave her a flat look, "Please, tell me that you got that in the store we were just in."

Kaoru looked confused, he'd wager it was either because she didn't understand why it was important for him to know where she got it from or why she would go to someplace else when it was available in that store. Still, she answered with a confused nod.

 _Good, at least she stayed in an area where she knew I was..._

It was a lot better than her having walked off somewhere else, even if it incriminated him a bit more for not paying enough attention. Even so...

"Kaoru, you have to tell me if you're going to wander off like that. I can't keep track of you all the time, especially if we're about to leave an area... I thought you were right behind me when I left, how far do you think I could have gone before I noticed you weren't with me if I hadn't stopped here?"

She looked down into the ground in remorse, pushing around a pebble with a foot, only peeking up to deliver her defence, "I know my way home from here... You didn't have to worry, Onii-san..."

It was a shallow defence, and she seemed to know it judging by how her voice didn't have its usual strength or vigour and how she couldn't look at him directly while saying it.

"I'm sure you do, but that isn't the issue, it's about knowing... Had I gotten further than this, there would have been a much larger area you could have gone off to. What would I do then, Kaoru? I don't know this town that well, and all I could have done then would be to start searching. You could have gone home, and I wouldn't have known about it…"

Kidnapping was another worry, paedophiles another, even if he expected most of the latter to have enough sense to not do anything to any child... He wasn't gonna mention it though, partly because of her age, but mostly because he felt he had scolded her enough, and that wasn't because of just how ashamed she was looking. Kaoru had even stopped trying to occupy herself with the rock, instead just standing there and holding back tears.

 _Don't pity her, damn it!_

Kenny could feel his image as the 'fun older brother' crumble the longer he kept up his stern exterior. It was _not_ a pleasant feeling…

"What do you have there, Kaoru?" He crouched down, becoming level with the girl. Sad as it was, he couldn't think of another way to cheer her up. At least it could be a start; besides, it could also answer the question as to why she up and disappeared in the first place.

She roughly wiped her free sleeve over her eyes, "Ice cream..."

A part of him wanted to give the warm and understanding smile that he had, for whichever reasons that he couldn't explain, saved for situations like this, though it was more out of some unknown wish to do so. Not that it mattered, he was more focused on not letting his face fall into the flat look that was fighting to overtake his features. He was almost proud when he managed to stay neutral, at least on the outside.

 _That explains a whole_ not _…_

Well, expecting a thought-out reason from anyone below the age of 10 was an act of futility, kids tended to just do stuff regardless of any common sensibilities…

Her eyes locked onto his, once again with that serious, resolved and barely hidden nervous look in them; "I just wanted to say sorry, so I bought them... I wanted to share..."

Kaoru trailed off as he started to frown in thought, only partially because he had jumped to conclusions too quickly and not entirely because of the feeling of watching an innocent take the final march on death row... An image he was desperately trying to suppress as he thought of reasons for her to apologise, quickly arriving at the singular answer. A more discerning glance at her small, nearly see-through bag only served to confirm her statement. While not immediately noticeable, there were two small packs of ice-cream, not one large.

A second, more important thought crossed his mind while his attention was on the frozen treat, soon discarded due to what he considered to be common sense. If such a large percentage of the population was lactose intolerant, then it was stupid to worry about it being present in an everyday item such as ice cream.

 _Still… it would be best to keep an eye on her, just in case._

Kenny sighed and put a hand on the girls' shoulder; "Kaoru, I don't hold that fall against you. Besides, you did an outstanding job of dressing it afterwards, and that was after apologising. I had, honestly, expected you to make me look like a reincarnated two-thousand-years-old mummy, instead."

Kaoru's face took on a combination of an exaggerated frown and a pout, looking severely displeased at the insinuation of her _not_ doing the dressing seriously, the sight of which brought out a small amused smile.

"Drop that ridiculous looking face." He poked her nose, making it scrunch up and the girl to give a half-hearted glare, only pouring fuel on his amusement.

Still, he put a lid on it and scrutinised her with serious eyes, "Seriously though, don't run off without telling me first, ok? It's scary to think of what could happen if I don't know where I could find you when I need to…"

She nodded resolutely, looking sufficiently reprimanded.

"Ok, I will…"

"Good…" Kenny heaved himself up with a sigh and collected his bags, waving for the girl to follow. "We should head back. The faster we can get back, the sooner we can eat and the sooner we can enjoy that ice cream."

"HAI!" came the resounding response, the lure of self-bought ice cream powerful enough to expediently erase whatever lingering feeling that being reprimanded produced. She looked up at him with a toothy smile, "What will we have for dinner, Onii-san?"

He looked back at her to respond when he started to turn the corner, "I'm planning some Ceasar sa-"

He was cut off mid-sentence by a sudden force slamming into his chest, depriving him of whatever air was still in his lungs while sending him sprawling on his back, irritating the now scabbed over scrapes there and making the area pulse in a renewed wave of pain.

 _Life is torture! Just kill me already! I hate my life, fuck it all! May it go to hell and burn to cinders and be pissed on by the devil!_

He didn't land directly on top of it, but it aggravated his already lightly aching tailbone all the same, and two falls on that particular area in one day was more than anyone should want.

"Onii-san!"

The desperate call from Kaoru pulled him from his internal rant, and he pushed himself back up best he could on his aching behind. "I'm fine, Kaoru, just-"

Kaoru stood unmovingly and lightly shaking, but wasn't sparing Kenny a second glance. Instead, she was staring with extreme intensity at something on the ground ahead of him. Following her gaze, he met a male, teenage figure lying on his right side, dressed in jeans and a medium-grey jacket and with a red woman's purse lying close to his hand. He wasn't very tall, rough calculations told Kenny that the teen wouldn't reach much higher than his own chest in height. He was clean-shaven, with a messy patch of brown hair with red highlights on top of his head, which was lying close to the corner of the wall.

It didn't take many seconds for him to take note of an uncomfortable fact: he wasn't moving.

"Hey! You alright? _Hey!_ "

When he got no answer, Kenny heaved himself up a bit more to take a closer look, only to freeze up like Kaoru had when he took notice of what she had apparently been seeing from the start. From his previous position, it had been concealed to him, but the higher vantage allowed him a better view over the stranger, and one thing was clear as hell: those weren't highlights he had in his hair, it was blood! _**A lot**_ of blood, which was now quickly pooling underneath the teens head in a growing puddle.

That realisation effectively pulled him out of his daze, making him swear in anger at himself for seising up for even a second. Ignoring his body's protests, he quickly crawled over to the unconscious body.

"HEY! Wake up!" Kenny shook him and lightly slapped him in attempt to rouse him, ignoring the gathering crowd. The lack of response only served to worry and stress him out even more.

 _Trauma to the head, heavy bleeding. Guy's unconscious and unresponsive. Respiration…_

"Onii-san… is he okay?"

"Fuck! No breath, no heartbeat!" He sent a look towards the crowd as he arranged the body, looking both for someone to help and to see if anyone had called an ambulance. He could see a couple of cell phones, some by an owner's ear…

"I'll need help here!" He roared in anger at the one person with a brain so defunct that they choose to film the proceedings instead. The guy backed off in surprise, but it got several in the crowd moving forward to help the by now straddling, chest pumping blonde.

"Ambulance is on the way, ten minutes. I know CPR."

"Me as well."

 _This fucking week is just filled with_ fun _and_ exciting _new shit, ain't it!_

That was all he could think as he felt lactic acid build up in his muscles as the thirty-second mark of his manual labour passed, and he passed the baton to a woman in a suit.

Sitting nearby and awaiting his second turn, he could see that Kaoru was still frozen in place, seemingly ignorant of the world beyond staring at the incapacitated man while the pool of blood beneath the man's head grew ever wider. He cursed himself, but he couldn't take care of her yet. Even with the extra help, they were too few that had the guts to help, he couldn't leave.

Once the ambulance came, he would call the Sakakis and tell them what their daughter had seen… and although he carried no fault for the accident, he wasn't looking forward to the conversation at all…

-End-

hey, guys… I'm… back…

" _ **I'm not going to make myself look good" he says.**_

Is this going to be the way we start off all of these?

 _ **At least you warned that it would take a while for the next chapter to come out…**_

That I did, right? You have to give me cred for that, right?

 _ **BUT NINE MONTHS!?**_

EEK

 _ **And then you give us THIS GARBAGE!? What have you been doing?!**_

I tried hard writing this, you know…

 _ **Where is the action?**_

Well, I-

 _ **Where are Rias and the rest?**_

Well, you see-

 _ **Where is the plot?**_

That is to say-

 _ **You are half baking this, aren't you?**_

(CRYING) I better not tell you that I kinda lied…

 _ **WHAT!?**_

AAAAH! I didn't mean that! Not entirely! Do-ho-ho-ho-nt look at me like thaaaat…!

 _ **EXPLAIN THIS!**_

Well, I technically didn't lie… we… can… call it a fuck-up from my side, yep! And now I have to work within the confines and future prospects of said fuck-up.

…

Ok, remember back in chapter one, in the beginning, where I make a wonderful description of blood and blood?

 _ **Get to the point…**_

 **To the point I shall get then, these last several months have been a juggle between schoolwork, the will to write and writer's block. That hasn't stopped me from thinking about where I'm supposed to take this, and somewhere along the line I started to look at the canon timeline, the order of events and just how much time has actually passed between, to make it easy for me, the start in the first volume and the end of the twentieth volume. In this case, we're speaking a year's time, Issei is a third year by volume twenty.**

 **This led me to start developing my own timeline based on canon up till season 3 and the dates of actual holidays in Japan, the problem with this idea though was that I had done goofed from the beginning. The 'two months earlier' partition I gave in the beginning of the first chapter blew that idea out of the water because it wouldn't be more than a month and a half before the summer holidays and the trip to the netherworld for the young devil's tournament.**

 **In short, I had to put a whole lot more thought into my timeline planning than I had originally thought.**

 **I'm not gonna lie, though, this chapter hated me with a passion: I can probably point out each and every single spot where I got stuck and had to write and rewrite because I had no idea what was supposed to happen.**

 **Secondly, it feels a lot like a filler to me, which it isn't… I suppose it isn't too weird of to feel like that, though, since I look forward more towards the more exciting parts at the moment such as world building and battle and such.**

 **Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that I had to cut this chapter short, both because I'm starting to really tire of it and because it would have likely reached over 30 000 words, which is a little too long even by my usual standards. Forces me to rethink how to do the next, seeing as I had planned to continue where this one was supposed to end…**

 **This means that the prologue, which these chapters pretty much are, is likely to be longer than my originally projected three chapters…**

 **Anyway, tell me what you think in a review, the two I got during the first days really got me pumping and roaring to write. Don't be afraid to ask questions as well, I have no problem doing a little FAQ at the end of each chapter. They have the added benefit of forcing me to think…**

 **By the by, I can tell you, ParkerThomas, that I won't genderbend any characters in this story. I like Gasper as he is and as such he shall remain!**

 **As for you Hunter801, thanks a lot for the compliment, it's a real ego boost. It also pointed out to me that I could still work more on the pacing, it's a thing I'll look into when I come around to cleaning up my writing when I've established my writing style.**

 **Curu, signing out. I'll see you guys in the next chapter.**

 **The word count for this chapter: 24 634**


	4. Chapter 3

Asia Argento looked around the darkening, by now semi-familiar room.

Being under house arrest meant that she had little else to do to fill the passing of the hours, and after having spent a little over two days in this room that was becoming gratingly obvious. She had asked to be allowed to fetch something to sew, knit or perhaps even to embroider some cloth, which had always served to pass the many quiet hours back at the monastery. Alas, the pair of exorcists tasked with watching her had shot down the request with nary more than distrusting and judgemental looks. She had had little choice but to demurely bow her head from the unusual and equally uncomfortable glares without another word being said and quickly scurry back to the relative safety that made up the edge of the bed to collect herself from the failed endeavour.

Another look back at the pair of seated men in the black coats was met in the same way as the one she sent twenty minutes earlier and the one thirty minutes before that: with stern faces and the judgemental and glaring eyes staring her down. She couldn't hold either of their harsh gazes for more than a second before her timid nature forced her to avert her eyes and study her hands with an unnecessary amount scrutiny, busying them with attempts to smooth out a barely visible nick in her thumbnail with the pad of the other.

She wasn't sure what to think or to do, a tiny and reticent voice within her said to try asking again. She was bored, after all. A significant part of her also wanted to ask for something to do if only to give her something else to think about than the men back at the monastery. Their looks and harsh words when she had carried the wounded man back were still fresh in her mind, making her almost regret healing the strange man.

 _NO!_ She harshly shook her head, the errant thought making her insides twist painfully with guilt; _God tells us to act with kindness towards all creatures…_

So _why_ hadn't they…?

She had been afraid of the leather-winged man when she had found him unconscious in the fields, being named a saint meant being granted certain knowledge, after all. Knowledge such as exorcists being more warriors than saviours of possessed souls, that there was not _a_ devil in existence, but a whole society of them searching for every viable opening to usurp and destroy Gods work… and that in contrast to the demons that she had learned of while growing up, the devils almost always took a human form.

It was the knowledge that the devils hated God and the angels and those involved with them and that she couldn't know what one would do if she ever happened to meet one that had Asia deathly afraid of the leather-winged _human_ she had found.

But despite the fear, there was still the wish to do the right thing; it was what God would want her to do, and it was what she had been taught to do since young. Besides that, the wish to help others was a deep-seated part of her, turning a blind eye to the suffering of _any_ being plain and simply wasn't in her. At no time during her meeting with the devil had she considered merely leaving him there, even now the thought was abhorrent. Instead, her fear had been buried underneath the very nature she had been bestowed with upon birth by God.

She hadn't been sure of how grievous his wounds were, but they had likely been more visually ugly than they were critical if the speed of healing was any indication of it. The problem had arisen after that, though. With the devil still being unconscious and Twilight Healing being unable to actually attack _anything_ – not that she had ever actually tried doing so –, even if the said thing were harmful bacteria or viruses, she couldn't be sure if he was indeed out of danger, so she did the only thing she could think of doing.

The choice had been natural and hadn't even needed considering; the monks were kind people, and they wouldn't turn away anyone that needed help. They had taken in an orphan and watched over her like family from the first moment, after all. It was them who taught her to be kind to others, and it was their gentle guidance that had led her to be who she was today!

What had met her upon her return wasn't the kind, warm and adoring smiles that she had been so used to. Instead, their faces were painted in the picture of horror and betrayal and anger. The devil had awoken during the resulting uproar and swiftly fled the area, pursued by an enraged Father Naidoo armed with a sword of light and an exorcist gun, leaving her there alone with thirty monks demanding an explanation for aiding _the_ devil.

By the time Father Naidoo had returned from his failed hunt several minutes later she had been desperately trying to figure out what she did wrong in helping the devil. Whatever she said though made little difference, it was as if the purest tenet of God, the one of kindness and forgiveness for all, had been forgotten.

But that was impossible; the monks were the kindest people she had ever met! So _why_ didn't they look to _help_? _Why_ did they treat her like she had done something inexcusable? They were always so wise, so intelligent and understanding… so _why_ didn't they let her explain?

Why did they call her a witch…?

Why did they say that she had-

She shook her head, she needed something to keep her occupied, or the questions without any apparent answers would drive her insane on top of broken-hearted.

And what if she reached the wrong answer?

What if they weren't as kind as she remembered?

A silent tear escaped the corner of her eye, quickly followed by more as she shook in fear of the answers she could reach if she thought too deeply about the situation.

She wasn't sure when her hands clasped together in a prayer for guidance, and she wasn't sure when she stopped crying. All she knew was that in a single moment of kindness, the lights in her life had somehow disappeared, leaving an inky blackness surrounding her, impossible to peer through.

All she knew was that if she had faith, then God could make it right… and even if He didn't, the Heavenly Fathers embrace she could physically feel while praying would lull her to sleep, encourage her to be brave and face tomorrow with even her limited courage.

God would guide her onto the right path; she would get through this.

~-o0 April 21st, Thursday, 2016 0o- ~

Kenny lifted his gaze from his chosen piece of literature and looked at the lone, but all the same, loudly ticking, clock above the whiteboard in his 'native' classroom of 2-D. It was empty and therefore quiet, discounting the clock, a small contrast in comparison to the two or three voices he could hear from beyond the door.

7:25

He was early today. It wasn't by choice; the previous day's excitement had kept him from sleeping as well as he would have wished. That pretty much translated into nothing, so at around 4 in the morning, he made the decision to get out of bed, lest he'd risk falling asleep and not get up at all.

He knew that if he allowed himself to skip school just once it would become a habit, one he wouldn't bother fighting. Instead, he chose to arrive early and take advantage of the morning calm to get a bit of reading done.

It had been a while since he had last read the Tales of the Otori series, but the memories of the books were fond ones. Come to think about it; there were several good books that he hadn't read in a while…

 _Why_ did _I stop reading?_

He really couldn't say, but he would wager it was because he became more occupied with computers and gaming, and then there was fanfiction… So, he technically never stopped enjoying a good story, it only happened to move from one form to another. Still, the feel of a paperback in his hand was a nostalgic one.

He liked it.

Even more, he liked the book itself. He had only ever read the series once, and he was looking forward to completing it once and for all by reading its prequel, 'Heaven's Net is Wide'.

It was a pity that his restless mind disallowed him from enjoying it to the fullest…

It had taken longer for the ambulance to get there than he had expected. Or perhaps not, adrenaline tended to mess with one's perception of time at the best of times. Regardless, it had been the longest ten minutes of his life, as well as the most boring.

Yes, Kenny Nilsson, the new transfer into Kuoh Academy, considered saving a life a dull venture. Perhaps that was the reason it had felt like the minutes stretched into hours; the novelty of saving a life had quickly become a tedium in the face of monotony.

Breath in twice, pump thirty. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse-and-repeat…

He had found himself more interested in the head injury that just refused to stop bleeding, even within the limits of what a head trauma should produce. It had made him look up another word in Japanese: haemophilia. He was sure the purse snatcher had the genetic disorder, the man _was_ heavily bruised after collapsing, or so he had noticed while sitting around waiting for his turn to give the kiss of life and do compressions.

He was also sure in his labelling of the man as a purse snatcher: for a man in such a hurry, there was a considerable lack of phone calls telling him to hurry. The man's clothes weren't feminine enough for him to be a crossdresser, either, though that could be either here or there regarding where in the spectrum he identified his gender as being…

In a way, it was funny: once the attempt to save the man's life had come underway, it had become something of a commotion, with one person exchanging another in the tasks. Everyone was moving around like headless chickens despite knowing what they were supposed to do, and if they didn't, they were doing one nervous tick or another. This was in comparison to himself, who had been sitting around and coming to conclusions regarding the nature of the man that had been lacking a heartbeat. All while giving offhanded glares at the one or two idiots who thought it a good idea to bring out their phones for purposes other than what Graham Bell and the other inventors intended.

He didn't doubt that he had been nervous about the situation, on some level, a level where he didn't feel it after his first round riding the man's stealing ass. Then again, he hadn't felt it much before that either as far as he could remember, too focused on the task at hand probably.

Perhaps that had been the reason for his bad night; his mind continued to wander back to the man bleeding his brain out on the pavement and his own actions in the situation. It wasn't what he shouldn't have done that had him going back, he had acted in a calm enough manner – far more so than he had thought he would, but that might just have been a form of shock, now that he thought about it –, and had corrected himself based on what he saw the others do. He could honestly say he had done everything within his limited power to increase the man's chances of survival.

What had him feeling guilty was the feeling that had permeated him while there: the boredom. Not the fact that he had judged the man to be a criminal based on no other evidence than that the man was holding a woman's purse and had been in an apparent hurry somewhere, not the fact that he had spent his time making a profile of the man and think up reasons as to why he had turned to crime.

That had become a list in and of itself…

No, it was the boredom, all the above only came about as a way to alleviate it. That he had no problem with, if he ever were to meet the guy again and befriend him then he would be able to ignore all the conclusions he had reached on principle. It was the _boredom_ of saving him that had him feeling like an ass. The guy had been bleeding out, and there he had been sitting around between rounds and considering which homework could be the most fun to do once he got home…

On a side note, it had been a tie between the English assignment and reading about the Heian period, neither of which he had actually done…

Then it was Kaoru; the poor girl had only been able to stand around looking at the ongoing events before he had led her away and someone had offered to keep watch over her… he hadn't done anything more than that, not said anything more than a 'come here' and 'wait here' and gone back to do compressions afterwards.

What had he been supposed to do? He honestly wanted an answer to that question, because even after having spent the night thinking about it, he couldn't think of anything but take her to a café or something to buy ice cream while leaving the others to keep the guy alive. Anything to get her mind of the image of that busted skull, really…

That, he felt, was a personal failing even worse than finding a man dying, one he was supposedly trying to save, boring…

Yet, after the ambulance had left, all he had done was allow her to silently hug him until she had calmed down enough to make their way home. There had been no tears, no bawling and no questions from the child; she had merely clung to him while lightly shaking. The fact that her parents couldn't get her to speak wasn't a solace, although that they seemed unable to find anything to say themselves was a small, albeit horrible, one. At least he wasn't the only one that couldn't think of anything to say, as bad as that sounded…

Perhaps it was a waiting game, as Touya had said… one that they maybe wouldn't have to play if he had removed her immediately instead of focusing on the guy… All Kenny could hope for now was that she had gotten a good night's sleep without nightmares of the event… he felt that that hope was shallow and without basis…

 _Damned if I do, damned if I don't…_

So, it seemed to be the rule with everything in life, really. Coming to Kuoh was just as much a beginning as staying in Canada would have been, but this start hadn't been good in any measure of the word… Then again, school is school, regardless of country and continent. The difference, however, would have been that he wouldn't have had to learn a new language and customs if he had stayed. French perhaps, but that should, strictly speaking, not have been any more necessary than learning Spanish in the states.

A sound similar to heavy rolling marbles – or however you describe the sound, he hadn't decided yet – broke through his self-decrepitating thoughts, calling his attention to the door. He was thankful for the distraction; he wasn't getting anywhere with the book.

"You're here early, Nilsson."

"Morning Kiryuu… I didn't know you were part of any clubs." He watched as she moved over to her seat and hung her bag there, walking over towards him afterwards and sit down on an adjacent chair to talk.

"I'm not… I just like to be here early since my afternoons tend to be full, got to do that homework at some point… What about you, you found a club to join?"

He shrugged, "None I would be able to stick with for long, as soon as I'm settled in I'll have to start looking for a job of my own to do in the afternoons."

"Hmmm. Well, you better be careful; unless you have extenuating circumstances, then the board is unlikely to allow any after-school activity that doesn't involve clubs or studying. That said, you don't report me for working, and I won't report you." She gave him a grin speaking of a feeling of superiority, "Aren't I nice? I can keep two of your secrets!"

He frowned in confusion, "Yeah, yeah, you got a deal. But two?"

"Your Scooter. It's even less in agreement with the rules than any part-time job you or I will ever be able to find... except compensate dating, but I somehow doubt you would dabble in that… Though judging by the look on your face, I would wager you didn't know about that particular school rule… Here's a friendly tip, park it further away so that it's harder to find, you'll potentially save yourself a lot of trouble that way." She warned airily before curiously asking; "So what's your reason for being here a full hour before homeroom?"

Filling away her advice, he gave another shrug; he honestly didn't feel like talking to her about the previous day's events, he didn't need her judging him on his feelings. He was doing an excellent job of that himself…

No. On second thought, Kiryuu probably wouldn't do that: she was more likely to tease him about being a psychopath or something… Or she could take it seriously, after which he wouldn't know what to say…

"Thanks for the warning. Well… I couldn't sleep, so I got up ahead of time but found it boring at home, so…"

"And this is any better…" She had a point with her flat statement. "I suppose I don't blame you if you think so, though. School is surprisingly calm, so I tend to spend as much time here as possible."

 _Calm isn't the word I'd use to describe the afternoons…_

Or the school hours… The mornings he could somewhat understand, though, he had spent the last thirty minutes undisturbed, discounting the occasional student moving through the corridor and the shouts of the sports clubs that carried through the open window from time to time. After hours could only be described as one significant disturbance in comparison…

That said, the increasing disturbance out in the hallway had been signalling the end of the morning tranquillity he had been attempting to enjoy for a little while now.

"I can see what you mean, but I'm starting to wonder just how early some people get here." He muttered out loud, looking over towards the door in a silent prayer for it to not open and leave him in the calm bubble that somehow existed at the source of one of his frustrations. Only in Japan would students come to school hours early, other youths of industrialised cultures would at least try to stay away as long as time allowed.

His faith in a lack of a god was once again reaffirmed with the opening of the door and entrance of one of his male classmates. Exchange glances were all the three did; there was no verbal greeting or even a nod before the guy skulked over to the front of the classroom and leaned against the windowsill, apparently ignoring the pair.

Kenny wasn't sure what to do now, the conversation had seemingly ground to a halt, and he couldn't think of a viable way to start it up again. In some small way, he felt that involving the other guy in the room would be mandatory _if_ he could think of a topic to talk about...

Instead, he stiffly leafed through his book, an action that amounted to nothing, feeling awkward for being unable to think of anything to say and stupid for feeling uncomfortable to begin with. He shut the pocketbook with an audible sigh and put it away. Judging by his success in reading up till now, he doubted he would be turning many pages.

Finally, it became too much for him. He pushed himself out of his seat, the scraping of the chair catching the attention of the other two.

"Where are you going?" Kiryuu asked in minor interest. He noted that she seemed a bit too bored by the lack of happenings for someone whom allegedly enjoyed the tranquillity, but paused to consider her question all the same. He really hadn't thought that far ahead, with the ever-growing prospect of more of his classmates entering the classroom hanging overhead, he just wanted out. Maybe he would take a walk around the area, perhaps take something of a nap under a tree for a while. He'd see where his feet had taken him when they finally decided to stop moving.

"Nowhere. Everywhere. Too tired to read, so I guess I'll take a walk instead of hanging around here looking like an idiot."

"You need to work harder, then." She insulted offhandedly.

"Funny, four eyes."

"Hello kettle, I'm pot."

"He~llo~ drugs. Sit still; I'm going to go call the cops now."

From where he stood the small quirk of her lips was readily apparent, "I'll tag along, not like I got anything better to do…"

Kiryuu was out of her chair and over by the door before he had a chance to get a word in. Not like he was going to stop her either way, the way he figured he could be suffering worse company than her.

He moved calmly after her down the mostly empty corridor, ignoring the looks he was getting from the ones that recognised him but feeling puzzled at how some of them shied away from him like he was dangerous.

 _Whatever is happening now, I don't like it…_

~-o0O0o-~

"Do you know what your problem is?", the girl with the brown braids queried, looking at him with scrutinising yellow eyes after having won yet another bout of thrown insults. "It's that you offer too much of yourself, not mentioning your tendency of making fun of yourself instead of firing back…"

"Suppose I don't dislike you enough to be angry when you smack talk me… Besides, I'm normally a bit too thick-skinned to be easily roused by others. Try knowing me for ten years; then we'll see how my patience hold up."

"… well, based upon my extensive observations-"

"Do kindly keep your mouth shut." He cut her off, "Conditions do apply."

A short, though not harsh, laugh escaped her, "They always do, don't they…"

 _Always do…_

Circumstances had been grinding against his slowly diminishing patience for a while. He had noticed that often it wasn't noticeable to others when he was upset with them, keeping his anger of others under wraps seemed to come naturally to him. When he was angry with himself though it was a whole other ball game, the person that didn't notice that would have a complete inability to read anyone's emotions.

Regardless, in the event of either situation, he would have some chosen words for anyone he laid eyes on, just that in the case of the former he would be quietly carrying those words to his grave. There were exceptions, of course, but the list of people he didn't bother to hide his frustration and anger with was a short one.

 _Always did hold myself to a higher standard..._

As arrogant as it sounded, he did have high, if not unreasonable, expectations of himself when he knew he could do something. Such as managing his stress during these last months… But with as much thinking as he had been doing, Kenny felt he shouldn't have been surprised at exploding when things finally began to pile up too high. In fact, he should have seen the signs ahead of time, at very latest on the day that it happened. The fact that he hadn't noticed them until afterwards, and that it had been after having spent much time analysing his meltdown in the classroom, was grating, to say the least.

He _really_ should have handled it better than that, and he really shouldn't have exploded; it showed a lack of self-control that he frankly despised noticing about himself.

In retrospect, he could admit that there had been _some_ positive fallout from it, namely his calm. That wasn't to say he wasn't still stressed, worried about further fallout and consequently his standing in class or even in a generally angry mood, but it _had_ allowed him to vent enough to return to his seemingly aloof way of acting amongst people he didn't know that well and wasn't actively trying to get to accept him.

He would have to thank the Sakaki's, spending time with his neighbours was one of the few things that somehow got him to stay in the moment instead of floating around in a haze of thoughts and welling emotion. He wasn't sure why they had that effect on him, but it was a welcome change of pace from the overall negativity that had become the norm…

In a small way, it was the same with Kiryuu; she didn't treat him like he was different. At the same time, she didn't make it a secret that she thought he had been an idiot. She was merely around from time to time for no other reason than that she found trying to rile him up and their barbed exchanges to be entertaining.

Then again, he was the same when he was comfortable with people.

It kind of reminded him of his relationship with two of his nieces; often in agreement on subjects and always at each other's throat with readily given insults, but never in contact beyond the ten or so meetings they had each year.

Kiryuu wasn't a friend, though. And he didn't think that way because of their limited time together; he plain and simply doubted he would ever see her as anything more than an acquaintance and classmate. He'd even wager she'd say the same thing if asked. No, she was a classmate he could get along with, and an acquaintance he wouldn't have a problem keeping contact with from time to time when they finally graduated, but he couldn't see a long-lasting friendship coming from this.

At least not yet… He wasn't one to deny possibilities, but he knew himself far too well to say otherwise.

"Stop imagining girls naked."

The sudden, out of left field accusation snapped him out of his long-winded thoughts.

"I'm not… I imagine them in sexy clothes that tantalise you into fantasising of what's beneath… If you're jealous, I can make room in my fantasy if you want."

"Whoa, I didn't think you would admit it…"

"Whoever said I admitted to anything? I could simply be stating my- oh my, that's an ama~zing ima… ge?" He trailed off in his joke, his eyes locking onto a running trio on the other side of the soccer field, a group of girls was chasing them, all clad in traditional clothing. They were either from the kendo or kyudo club based on the clothes, though the straight sticks they were all carrying with them and some were rising high made that only a tad bit obvious.

"The hell did those three do to make the entire kendo team chase them?"

Kiryuu had to prop herself up to look over the hedge they were resting behind, but quickly recognised the trio, "Ah, it's the hentai san'nin-gumi." She stated like it was nothing, though it sure didn't look like nothing from where he was sitting.

"The what of what now?" He knew exactly what the words meant, but his mind was more focused on the proceedings across from him.

"It's Hyoudo and his pervert friends; I'm guessing they decided to peek at the girls while they were changing… Can't say I'm surprised, several of them have great style, and those three idiots really don't have the self-control _not_ to sneak a peek."

Kenny hummed in response, watching the trio round a corner of the building and disappear beyond view, followed by the wave of stick-wielding swordswomen. "Out of concern towards fellow human beings, they aren't going to beat them up using their shinai if they catch them, right?"

"They would deserve it…" The answer made him frown.

"Maybe, but would it be right?"

Kiryuu shrugged carelessly, "They never learn, and they are never hurt too badly. You'll get used to it."

That _doesn't sound good…_

"The school doesn't do anything?"

Now it was Kiryuu's turn to frown, though, it was in confusion. It was as if she didn't understand why he was pursuing the path of inquiry.

"About their peeking, or the resulting beating they incur? People are sent to talk to the teachers when they are informed, but they don't do much more than give them a couple of days of suspension to the ones involved at most… and that's only when someone tells the teachers, or it somehow becomes a big deal."

A slap on the fingers for what amounted to assault and sexual harassment? It was more than he or anyone else got when they got into fights in primary school, but this was secondary school… Regardless, they should be reporting to the police after repeated incidents, if not the first.

 _Guess I'll ask Takagami about what anti-bullying policies the school has later…_

He would put it aside for now, though. Instead, he looked at his phone and noted the time.

"Ten minutes till the first bell…"

"Want to head on back?"

Not really… Still, he got to his feet and stretched out his back, a couple of loud pops being his reward for the action, another three being produced as he twisted his neck. He gave a light smile towards his glasses clad classmate, who he noticed flinch at each pop and was glaring up at him. He got into a slow walk back towards the front of the school, wanting to waste as much time as he potentially could, followed by an equally sedate if still lightly glaring Kiryuu.

The commotion that met them at the front gates was… weird, for lack of a better word. It kind of reminded him of those YouTube videos of fans when they finally got the chance to be within ten meters of their most adored celebrity. Several of the students, the majority of which were girls, no surprise there, where shouting out a few names he couldn't make out in the din of good mornings and chattering.

 _So, this is how people act when star struck…_

The thought was almost medical in nature, without either passion or surprise.

The only fascinating thing about the situation was that the group was, for whichever reason, acting in the complete opposite way towards those four girls, seniors based upon the shouts of 'senpai', and keeping a more than respectful distance from them.

 _I don't get it._

He never did understand the fascination that people had with celebrities, they were just ordinary people if you looked under the hood. In any other situation, they could be flipping burgers at McDonald's, and no one would even give them a second glance. Take away whatever they specialised in and they would be pencil pushers or doing manual labour, maybe even lead better and more healthy lives because of it.

Conversely, had they not been in the right place at the right time then it could have been someone's parent that was famous. The blonde doubted that many children would be reading their working-class parents autobiography.

That being said, the girls _were_ beautiful. There was no doubt about that; he would have to put some effort into looking around to find someone who could trump them. Good looking, but he couldn't see any reason for this… worship.

"Hey, Kiryuu. Who are they?"

She gave him a raised eyebrow, "You haven't heard of or seen them yet?"

He shook his head in response, keeping his eyes on the foursome.

"Have you been hiding under a rock since you came here? The two with the glasses are the heads of the student council, the one with the short hair is Shitori Souna-senpai, the student council president, while the long-haired one is Shinra Tsubaki-senpai, her vice president. Gremory Rias-senpai is the one with red hair, and she heads the occult research club, while the one walking next to her is Himejima Akeno-senpai, the vice president of the same. The four of them are the most popular girls in school, with Gremory-senpai and Himejima-senpai being called the academy's two great ladies. And it seems like they got another fan…"

He wasn't sure what to think of that, but he could at least agree with the general population's assessment; once again, he would have to look around to find someone that matched those four in the looks department.

 _Wait… another fan…?_

The thought made him pause, and the realisation that he was staring at them like they were goddess capable of making his every dream come true made him shake his head with a scowl.

It was like snapping out of a drunken haze, yet still not. The feeling of his head being filled with helium and the sense of unbalance was conspicuously absent. He still felt intoxicated, but had enough cognitive function to make sound decisions.

Within whatever limits constituted sound in this situation. At least he could feel himself 'sobering up', and quickly at that: mind-jolting, ice bath quick.

A dull headache was replacing the hazy feeling, an almost welcome throb just behind his left ear that felt more pleasurable than the weird feeling of being overcome by... he didn't even know. It was like he was there, yet not there; overwhelmed by a strange sense of calm and direction within a grey limbo.

The fact that he hadn't noticed until now was most disconcerting. He couldn't even remember the last time he had used such general terms as cute and beautiful to describe a person's looks.

To others: sure. It was easier to be general than pointing out the small details that one takes notice off.

By himself: didn't happen. It was always specific and counterbalanced by a trait that was less desirable. 'Nice hips, unbecoming glasses', as it were.

Not even having feelings for said person made him derail from that way of acting, even if his mind naturally focused on the pleasant parts more because of said attraction. A thing he tended to counteract by hyper-analysing his feelings and the person in question, resulting in most crushes and 'first stage in love's' ending in weeks due to said person being dragged down from whatever pedestal that the attraction had put them on the level of an ordinary person.

Disconcerting was, therefore, an understatement. This wasn't a simple pedestal of attraction; he had been… worshipping them…?

Yes, worshipping was an accurate enough word for what he had been doing. That had never happened before as far as he could remember. And if it had, it hadn't been this fast or so strongly or to more than a single person at a time.

His eyes travelled back to the group of girls, mind already reeling to deconstruct them. He found himself displeased with the difficulty of the act but pushed through it best he could.

 _At least I'm not addled anymore._

He wasn't sure where it had come from but wasn't keen on it happening again.

The short-haired girl, Shitori Souna, looked to be the shortest of the group but had a certain presence that made it impossible to ignore her. She was wearing the standard girl uniform of Kuoh, and a pair of oval purple-red glasses adorned her nose, a pair of violet eyes sharply shining through. Her short hair was cut into an accentuating bob-cut with a thick golden hairclip on the left side of her face, seemingly there more for the aesthetics than making her hair, most notably the somewhat messy bangs above her eyes, more manageable.

Her vice president, Shinra Tsubaki, also had the same presence. She was on the taller side of the group, with free-flowing hair long enough to reach the back of her knees and split bangs, allowing one to see her forehead. Her glasses were light-blue squares without the top rim, enabling free sight of her mismatched violet-light brown eyes, left and right respectively.

Kenny paused for a second to consider the two, or rather the special feeling that they exuded, one that he could so clearly recognise but couldn't place. It wasn't what had made him addled, though it was still there, it was different. It was something with their eyes and faces that rubbed him wrong… like they were continually judging those around them.

The feeling like every little thing was scrutinised and judged and falling short of some expected standard hung over the two like a shadow. For the two to have become so popular despite the air of unapproachability that surrounded them… He wasn't sure how to judge that, one of his teachers had had the same air and it took him a year to get used to it enough to realise that the man wasn't as harsh as his presence and general look made him out to be. Either he was wrong, or the two had been around for long enough that the other students didn't have a problem with it.

Regardless, he felt intimidated by it. Not a feeling he particularly enjoyed…

The third girl was somehow confusing to him, on one end Himejima had a gentle beauty about her, one that he felt suited the ideal of the Yamato Nadeshiko that anime and whatnot had ingrained him with, on the other she was somehow the most… alluring, of the group. Her assets were noticeable, producing light curves despite the neutralising coverage that the school uniform and the accompanying cape provided. And how she managed to make the simple act of walking look seductive, he didn't know, nor was he sure he wanted to, but she had succeeded in the wholly unnecessary venture. Nowhere was that more evident than in the looks of longing that were sent her way, and not only from the male populous.

Her hair had to be even longer than Shinra's, but it was hard to judge, what with it being tied up into a ponytail with that orange ribbon, forming a long and mobile whip of hair that followed along with the slightest movement. Calm violet eyes, in addition to her every move being impossibly soft and gentle, lent her the feeling of an aloof, calm and kind 'Oneesama'…

He somehow doubted many guys had asked her out because of that. If there were any combination of words that he would use to describe her at first glance they would be: 'untouchable older sister'. Perfect enough as to be intimidating, as it were. Anyone could be the younger sibling, but it would take a lot to only get past the feeling of inadequacy, never mind actually coming out and saying it.

Gremory was the one that truly stuck out, however. Any hair colour beyond brown and black was rare from what Kenny had seen, this being in stark contrast to the myriad of eye colours that he didn't think could exist, such as the other three's violet and Kiryuu's yellow-green that seemed to be some kind of off-hand norm. His own blonde hair tended to stick out in a crowd, discounting the ten to twenty centimetres of height he had on even the tallest of the locals, but that crimson red hair that reached past her buttocks would have stuck out even in the west.

The other thing that readily stuck out to him wasn't her beauty or glamour that rivalled the Nadeshiko who was walking next to her; it was her attention demanding eyes.

Where the ponytailed sister character she associated with looked romantically unapproachable but seemed to be the kindest of the bunch, and the other two seemed so strict that he wouldn't be surprised if they demanded nothing less than perfection from both themselves and others, she looked like the personification of beautifully carved, blue ice.

Ice with a superior sense of self-worth…

It felt like any look she sent to those around her carried a detached chill, like she was judging the fundamental worth of everyone around her with her every look. Unlike the student council duo, who seemed more likely to decide based on results, the redhead's green-blue eyes had already reached her conclusions of those around her: no one was worthy, there were no equals in this crowd.

Kenny could easily imagine a slave master looking at a stock of sick, malnourished and physically defective slaves carrying that exact look, with the extra hidden displeasure of having to make deals for defects with a lesser and disgustingly slimy person.

So why was some small part of him still seemingly adoring her? _Why_ did he feel like she could give him what he wanted to a point where he could ignore common sense, the same thing that was convinced that it was impossible? _Why_ in the _hell_ was he feeling hazy when looking at them?

No reason, he couldn't think of one.

One thing was certain: he would be staying away from those four the best he could, particularly red… Her passing glance was already grating; the look she would inevitably give him if they ever met in person would likely be one that one generally reserved for insects. No amount of whatever this was could soften that feeling.

Speaking of looks…

 _I'm not gonna like her at all, am I?_

~-o0O0o-~

Homeroom was the same old tedious hogwash of non-information that somehow passed for intelligent instructions.

It was interesting how he had already come to expect a standard for the bi-daily meetings that seemed to serve no other purpose than…

He hadn't really figured out that part of it yet, but he was sure it was going to sound insulting…

Once again, he wasn't sure if it would be insulting towards Takagami, whom he had no problems with, or the class that the teachers judged needed… whatever it was this was giving them... Bleeding ears, most likely...?

Not that he was paying any kind of attention to what was happening at the front of the class, he was having too much fun silently seething in irritation at miss-most-popular's attitude problem.

It wasn't a lie to say he was enjoying his current mood; it made for a good distraction from his own problems. It felt, in some small way, like he had returned to visit normalcy for a while, being able to complain to himself about things that really didn't matter. He likened it to the feeling of a person leaving a used glass on the table for the eightieth time instead of cleaning it or at least put it amongst the dishes, forcing you to do it instead.

He wasn't sure, but it could have had something to do with the look she had given him and the others around her.

A plus in his book: he had her correctly pegged!

A plus in her book: it hadn't been to the degree of an insect…

It had been more akin to 'how in the hell did you get accepted into this academy?'

He wasn't sure whether that was better, or not. Beyond the obvious, of course…

 _How the hell did someone like her become one of the school idols, anyway?_

It couldn't be because of her _charming_ personality… or the _kindness_ that radiated and oozed off her in droves… or her obvious _humility_ … or her charisma…

The last one he could at least if unwillingly, admit to her having, at least in the physical department. Too bad it was buried underneath the rest of the personality traits that modern society would consider to be wrong, it was so deep he had needed to shut down his negative thinking process for several minutes to reach that conclusion…

… that had taken some fun out of it, seeing as he had been on a roll…

And, truthfully, he was still debating the existence of her charisma… Mostly because he didn't want her to have it.

And then it was the feeling he got when he had looked at those four... The less said about his progress on that front, the better. He had no explanation for it, and any he could think of was easy to explain away.

Illness: not wholly unreasonable, but it shouldn't allow him to snap out of it, and if it did it wouldn't be to 80%. That was assuming there was an illness that only reacted to being near and seeing specific people.

Drugs: once again, shouldn't allow him to snap out of it, it would feasibly continue in full effect even after he noticed.

Then again, he had never tried drugs...

Injury: he doubted that his collision with that other guy was enough to do this– he had landed on his ass, after all, and his head never touched the ground – and if it did, he was liable to be dead by tomorrow, which would only be a minor loss. No other bumps or bruises or cuts to speak of.

Love was the most ridiculous of the ideas, mostly because it had gone from a hundred to twenty within seconds. That was a rapid drop, caused by nothing else but his realisation that he wasn't thinking straight, and completely unnatural, as far as he knew. Add in the unlikelihood of him falling in love at first sight, something that he put no stock in even when it was only one person, with _four_ girls at the same time. Add then in the council duos intimidating presence and reds... everything, and then it was pretty much impossible for it to happen.

That was unless he was a sucker for pain- _No thank you..._ \- or he was soattracted to that Himejima girl that her charm made him cuckoo enough to project said attraction unto the others, which seemed unlikely no matter how he put it…

 _Wouldn't mind bedding her in any case..._

He'd be damned if she didn't ooze undiluted sexiness. While he generally preferred the small to medium sized breasts, juggling those jugs wasn't something he would say no to.

Then again… That Shinra girl lying spread eagle, with her clothes messed up and her hair dishevelled, panting and red in the face, a small smile playing on her lips… Add then the boyish, yet feminine council president to image, nibbling on her friend's nipple…

He shook his head, attempting to think of something else to get rid of the now uncomfortable feeling of a poorly positioned, not even semi-hard penis stuck in a pair of equally severely placed boxers and pants. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, it wasn't the first time his head had travelled in that direction in the past fifteen minutes, and every time it did he was forced to shift around in a seat that didn't provide the space necessary to relieve the cramped feeling that naturally came with the risqué thoughts.

The opening door, signalling the end of homeroom, was the perfect distraction from his everyday proble-

Or not... Where the badly aged teacher that was standing in the doorway did too good of a job of killing the already non-existent chances of Takagami ending homeroom early, the man was even more effective in murdering the barely blossoming 'boner'.

Physiological normalcy aside, Kenny was frankly not sure what it was that made him internally groan; having his shallow hope of getting out early crushed like it amounted to nothing or the by now not utterly unfamiliar look the teacher sent his way before entering.

Or perhaps it was the all too familiar way that his gut twisted in on itself in foreboding anxiety, telling him that whatever was soon to dawn in his future was not anything to look forward to.

He wasn't unfamiliar with having a bad teacher that he couldn't stand, but the undue hostility from a couple of members of the faculty that couldn't be bothered with acting professional was appallingly new. It was as if the concept of subtlety was a foreign one to most of the teachers here. Quite the opposite, really. The worst seemed to be going out of their way to make their displeasure know, billboards with flashing lights style.

Then again, perhaps that was only this guy… Regardless, nobody would be calling him the teachers favourite pet anytime soon.

The class silently observed the history teacher, whose name the blonde had yet to bother to remember as a hollow attempt at childish rebellion, walk up to Takagami and exchange a few words too low to hear from the back row. The looks they were intermittently sending his way spoke loads of who it was concerning, though...

 _ **Fuck**_ _me…_

It was as if the world wasn't going to give him any respite… Still, his battered hope clung to the chance of it not being him it was about. Hyoudo sat in front of him, after all. Perhaps they were going to discuss his 'continuous and reoccurring' incidents of sexual harassment?

Whatever the case was, it was plain to see that Takagami was displeased by the nature of the interruption, if not the disruption itself. His face had scrunched up like he had swallowed a particularly sour lemon, a look that spoke of apparent frustration at his fellow's choice of place in discussing whatever issue that had cropped up. Still, he seemed to stay diplomatic about the situation while attempting to move the immobile older man - who had produced a comb from his coffee stained, dark grey suit and busied himself with making his whitened hair cover his bald spot while speaking - towards the door with limited success.

While this was happening, none too discreet whispers were cropping up around the room as a response to the flagrancy of the teacher's intent. Not that the pupils were any more subtle in their topic.

 _Can't stop teens from being children..._ the blonde thought dryly, noting with irritation the glances sent his way, the most obvious being Hyoudo who had to turn in his seat to get a good look over his shoulder.

 _Way to make a guy self-conscious, teach..._

He could feel the blood rise to colour his cheeks and ears from the unwanted attention, outwardly revealing what the situation did to him, increasing his ire towards the balding man as an immediate result.

He took some solace in the dark image of the old bastard inexplicably crashing through one of the closed windows and slamming head first into the ground, bleeding from multiple cuts and stabs from the broken glass while his head resembled a smashed watermelon…

Taking a cleansing breath, he looked out the window, making a shallow attempt at waiting out the proceedings in the classroom while ignoring the looks. The increasing volume the two were using to 'civilly' discuss with each other wasn't much of an indication as to how long of a wait he could expect.

Not that long, as it turned out. The explosive sigh that came from the now thoroughly frustrated Takagami was loud enough and distinct enough to call the lone swedes attention back to the front of the class.

"Nilsson-kun… will you please follow Higuchi-sensei to the guidance office. I'll meet you there…" Takagami didn't look at him, merely choosing to keep facing his fellow teacher with a repressed, but noticeably dark look on his face.

 _Right…_

It had been stupid to hope that it didn't involve him only because he hadn't heard his name being mentioned, disregarding the slim chance of that happening at the back of a noisy classroom. The hope had still been there, all the same.

 _Now who's acting like a child…_

Pushing down the feelings of disappointment, and attempting to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of having everyone's penetrating gaze on him like a sniper rifles scope, he pushed himself out of his seat and walked what felt like the path of shame with a carefully blank face. A part of him wanted to believe that Higuchi didn't intend for this to become like that, that was also the part that was efficiently being bullied into submission by the part that didn't ignore the fact that the man had insisted on staying in the goddamned classroom.

Unamusing _and_ unprofessional.

Worse, he couldn't think of a single reason for being called to the guidance office. Though, judging by the seemingly confirming glances and 'knew it's' that came out louder than intended, he belonged to the minority of people who didn't know what this was about.

Being left out of the loop wasn't something he particularly enjoyed when it didn't involve him being sent to get, what he assumed to be, a chewing out.

Understatement of the day, that one…

Higuchi moved over to the door, comb once again in hand to cover up his bald spot while making a valiant attempt to seem taller by stretching out his back as far as the chronic pain allowed him.

The result was neither intimidating nor inspiring of respect, coming out more like a prideful child with acrophobia pretending to stand on a ladder to seem taller. That he only managed to reach the foreigner's shoulders while doing so seemed to somewhat sour the man's mood, or perhaps it was the fact that he didn't pay him any more attention than ordinary.

Regardless, Higuchi allowed the blonde to pass before following him out of the classroom with watchful eyes.

 _So, running_ isn't _an option..._ The blonde thought sarcastically, growing irritated when the teacher started walking down the empty corridor without offering a single word, sending constant glance over his shoulder as if to ensure that the student didn't run. He followed with a mental groan, debating whether feeling insulted at what he felt was the 'condemned criminal treatment' was utterly unwarranted.

It was almost frustrating that his enforced benefit of the doubt ensured that the jury was still out on that question…

It wasn't a long walk in any way of the word, the counselling room being only a couple of doors away from the 2-D classroom with a small sign over the door written in indecipherable kanji marking it as such. Not that he had gone out exploring beyond the guided tour that Takagami had given him three days earlier, but he recognised the room as soon as the door opened.

Its location must have slipped his mind with everything that's been going on lately…

The setup was only partially what he had expected to see the first time, whereas the large table in the centre of the room with simple wooden chairs was as he would ha pictured, the two three-seater sofas and low table further in and the small kitchenette was _not_ part of his initial image. Beyond that, there was little of note; a couple of posters on the walls, some well-made paintings that had him assuming they were donated and framed photographs of people.

Higuchi gestured towards the sofas in the back of the room, himself moving towards the kitchenette; "Take a seat. Do you want anything? Tea? Coffee? I believe there are a few rice crackers around here..."

Giving the man a strange look at the sudden change in attitude, Kenny moved over towards the couch and sat down. It was soft, and while there were signs of age on it, not at all uncomfortable.

"Uh... Just tea, please...? I take sugar." He informed while keeping an eye on the weirdly acting teacher, hoping against all hope that the man _did not_ bring out the rice crackers, experience told him that they had a strong smell that he didn't particularly care for.

Watching the balding man go through a flurry of movements that he didn't think him capable of even on the best of days to fill and turn on an electric kettle he had gotten from one of the cupboards, taking out cups and saucers and spoons and sugar, placing them on a tray with a box of tissue paper, he realized it was a hopeless wish: from one of the cupboards came the accursed crackers and joined the other things on the tray that he carried over to the low table.

Kenny took notice of how the man looked at him from the corner of his eye as he placed the saucers and cups, "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble, Kenny-kun. We just want to check up on how you're doing, what with the recent transfer and move to a new country."

Sounded logical enough, even if he didn't consider it to be the school's business, though it begged the question as to why Higuchi was the one to check up on him instead of his homeroom teacher, even more, the altercation in the classroom with said teacher. Then there was the unknown rumour that seemed to be making rounds…

Suppressing a mental groan, he resigned himself to play along even if he didn't want to talk with the man beyond what was necessary to pass class…

 _Path of least resistance and all that…_

"I'm doing fine. The jetlag is still a bit of a problem, but I feel like I get enough sleep. I've managed to pack up most, if not all of my stuff, so that's done."

So many words, so little information… in other words; more than enough for family members to not delve any deeper into his life. Unless they actually knew something was wrong…

"That's good to hear…" Higuchi supplied succinctly as he sat down on the opposite couch, seemingly wishing to get past the small talk, "But I hear that you're living on your own. It can't be easy for a young man, such as yourself, not to have anybody looking after them."

The blonde frowned lightly at the obvious statement, something in the tone also seemed to say that it wasn't something he was meant to agree or disagree with. Or at least openly disagree with…

"It's not that bad, I'm somewhat used to it, and I enjoy having a place that's my own."

It was a subtle challenge, but not a lie in any measure of the word. Kenny was more than capable of living on his own, and much enjoyed the freedom and privacy that came with the option. The bonus of not having to deal with conflicting viewpoints and the preferences of others were nice additions.

The man gave a smile, "I reckon you would, it gives one a lot of freedom… You're lucky, not all parents trust their sixteen-year-olds to that much, and many of them tend to abuse that freedom by straying and neglecting themselves and their duties."

 _Couldn't possibly imagine why..._ He shrugged in neutral non-commitment, noting with slight annoyance how his challenge had been pushed aside like it hadn't been given.

"Judging by what you said, you have lived alone before this?"

"Yes, a couple of my previous school wasn't within a feasible travelling distance. I judged it to be more effective, necessary even, to move."

"But I'm sure you had someone looking after you…"

"They were boarding schools, so the one in charge of the living areas would check in once or twice every month at the most, but it was a simply a formality unless we had something that needed to be checked up or handled by the keepers. My roommates and I were trusted to survive on our own while not destroying the house. The places were still standing last I heard about it. You won't have to worry about me; I know how to look after myself."

"I'm sure…"

The neutral way that the simple statement had been said was just as insulting as the statement itself to him. Withholding an expression of judgement, disapproval or disappointment, he watched how Higuchi pushed himself out of his seat and went back to the electric kettle. He had barely even noticed how the pronounced hum that it produced had quieted and been exchange with the sound of boiling water.

A couple of more questions followed from the teacher as he poured the water into two of the three cups, all inane and wholly uninteresting to the man. 'How was your relationship with your previous teachers?', 'Where did you grow up?', 'Did you have many friends?', 'Siblings?'.

"Good enough…"

"In the 'suburbs' outside a small 'town'…"

"No kids lived in the area, and I didn't have many friends in school…"

"I have two older brothers…"

With each question and subsequent short answer, Kenny's wish to just tell the man to shove it was growing. While he had no problem giving the answers, the questions feelt like they weren't given in a get-to-know-you-way. Actually, this felt closer to a police interview than anything else.

"Higuchi-sensei, I appreciate that you're taking the time to check up on me, but you really don't have to worry about me…" That was the most civil way the Swede could think of to tell the old man to stop poking his nose where it didn't belong. He couldn't even be bothered to give it some fake sincerity, instead attempting suppressing his annoyance to sheer neutrality.

This didn't sit too well with the history teacher, who put aside his half-eaten cracker and leaned forward, "Kenny-kun, as a teacher I'm obligated to worry about and advise all my students – this includes you."

Said student looked down on the table where a rather noticeable piece of cracker had landed after being launched from the tutor's mouth with hidden disgust, listening half-heartedly to the lecture. He could guess what would be said anyway…

"I underst-"

"I don't think you do. I don't know how you treat your teachers in Canada or Sweden, but here we respectfully listen to our elders. We carry experience and wisdom that you have yet to gain, and it's our job and duty to make you into a productive member of society."

Why was he so particular about this? There had to be a limit to being passionate…

It was with some irritation that Kenny realised that his position could and likely was, being perceived as submissiveness in front of an alleged superiority. This only lent to the feeling of insult of being talked down to like a child, that it was done by a person that hadn't done anything to earn his respect didn't help either.

 _Breath in… then out… don't lift your head. Don't argue._ Don't. Argue!

The thick iron door felt heavy, either with a coat of rust on its hinges or in need of greasing while the contents of its interior were spilling out and falling off the piles onto the floor outside the vault of composure, it was hard to truly shut closed.

And then it burst open with a loud rattling, shocking him out of his introspection. _No_ , it wasn't his self-control snapping, even if he for a moment actually thought that to be the case, but the door to the room that had audibly opened, snapping him out of his semi-meditative state and interrupting whatever lecture Higuchi had continued while unknowingly being zoned out.

Takagami stood still in the doorway, giving Higuchi a stormy look, "I thought you were going to let _me_ handle _my_ students, Higuchi-sensei. Do explain which part of 'letting Takagami-sensei take care of it' involves you entering and disrupting _my_ homeroom because I can frankly not understand it…"

The former of the student-teacher pair was staring at the man with shocked eyes.

 _Damn, he's_ pissed _…_

"Now, now, Takagami-sensei, this is the first time you've had to deal with something like this, and this matter does frankly not involve just a single class, but the school in its entirety. I think we all wish to see this done correctly and with tact, not to say you cannot do either, but this _is_ the first class you've been in charge of. Besides that, this is an unpleasant business for anyone; I find it only right to be here to help guide my younger colleagues if it becomes necessary."

Kenny himself was looking between the two with some minor interest; judging by tone and emotion Higuchi sounded utterly genuine in his words, the words themselves were leaving much to be desired, leaving the half-brit visibly simmering in anger.

"It may well be my first term in charge of a class, but I've been a teacher for three years... I've taken an active part in the club I'm managing, and I've dished out repercussions to those that have been a disturbance. And you're telling me that there was _no better_ way to show your support other than to _interrupt_ my homeroom and undermine my _integrity_ , _respect_ and _trust_ with my students?"

Higuchi's face reddened as he stood up, displeasure almost visibly radiating off him in waves.

 _I'm not supposed to hear this, am I?_

As relieving, if not amusing, as it was to be watching the two start arguing about proper etiquette - or whatever one would call it in this instance, Kenny was personally going for common sense - instead of being interrogated, the fact that he was supposedly being 'handled' in any fashion for reasons he had yet even to be told about was still an ever-present grating on his mind.

Giving a breath and ignoring the two for the moment, he picked up his cup of tea from the tray, dropped four cubes of sugar into it and stirred the liquid, soft clinking that didn't sound altogether too loud with the verbal backdrop escaping with every half turn of the circular motion. Seeing as the men either didn't notice or didn't care about his presence, even when he was making some rather obvious noise, he decided to take the small pause to try the tea.

 _Hot hot hot hot...!_

Whatever taste was ignored in favour of not spitting out the small sip of hot liquid across the table. It seems like ten minutes of questioning wasn't enough to cool the tea off enough to drink. He was partially unsurprised when him leaning forward and breathe in almost a whistle to cool off his singed tongue didn't prompt the two to stop arguing.

It also served to fray the last of his patience.

"Can we _please_ get to the reason why I've been called here by Higuchi-sensei?"

His sudden outburst had the desired effect, and the two teachers looked at him like they'd just noticed they weren't alone in the room. Frankly, with how heated they were getting, he wouldn't have been surprised if they had completely forgotten about him.

He could have likely snuck out without them noticing... Or simply walked.

A sheepish looking Takagami coughed to clear his throat while under the stiff-faced sideways look of Higuchi, one returned with silent frustration.

"Let's..." Higuchi stated simply before taking a seat, "Kenny-kun. As I said before, you're not in any trouble, but you'll have to be honest and straight with us so that we may help you."

The blonde looked unimpressed at the teacher, all while annoyance and confusion swirled inside him at the rather obvious allusion to… something! Was he doing drugs, or was he an alcoholic without knowing it? Perhaps he was high on methane; this has distinctly started to smell like cow shit to him.

" _Thank you_ for the vagueness, sensei; I do sincerely have no idea what it is you're trying to say…"

" _Kenny-kun…_ " The aged history teacher warned gravelly before sighing, "You know what I'm referring to, and the first step for us to help you is that you at least admit-"

" _Why_ should I admit to doing something I don't know if I've done or not?"

"Kenny-kun! This is exactly what is going to-"

" _What. Have. I. Done?_ " he ground out, fully allowing his face to mirror his feelings of frustration and anger.

"Higuchi-sensei, I'll take over." Takagami cut in before it could escalate further. "Nilsson-kun, you haven't happened to visit one of the noticeboards today, have you?"

"No... Why?" He could feel the nagging suspicion take root in the pit of his stomach, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

The limbo of not knowing came to a quick end with Takagami placing a paper on the table. A photograph of Kenny straddling a familiar unconscious man, a startling amount of blood visible on his hands, the cuff of his jacket and on his chest, with his face frozen in a snarl towards someone not in the photograph.

They say a picture says more than a thousand words... Well, this photo managed to take the extra step and put those words together into a story where he was the violent party beating someone bloody.

Perhaps he should have felt horror or nervousness over the incriminating picture; maybe he should have been racing to explain himself and clear his name...

 _Someone posted this on the boards...?_

But that rather simple observation stopped him in his tracks, making him go entirely still. The stillness was a lie: inside he was roaring, his mind racing in vain to somehow cross identify the hazy memory of the faces of observers to the hazy faces of his new school 'mates'.

Whoever it was that decided to publish this picture sure was lucky that the task was close to impossible...

 _Or perhaps I'm the lucky one..._

He thought enraged: while no stranger to fisticuffs, even in a rage he recognised that he had never won a fight while his head was clouded with anger... Or even managed to hurt the source of his ire...

This was a first, though, one he never thought would happen, one he stupidly believed people had the better sense not to do. In the seconds of retrospect, he could ascertain that much: it was more than a little naive to think, for even a second, that this couldn't happen. In fact, he was downright moronic not to have taken it into consideration. Something must have gone wrong in the womb, and he didn't get the nourishment necessary for his brain to develop correctly... or air. Logic dictated that his parents, in their frustration, must have grabbed hold of his infant feet and swung him repeatedly headfirst into a steel table.

To the two teachers, it looked like their blonde student had suddenly frozen upon seeing the picture. The two almost jumped when an explosive breath escaped him out of nowhere before calmly picking up the photo to take a closer look. It was somewhat worrying that he didn't react in any other way than study the photograph with scrutiny, even more so that he no longer seemed to be frustrated or angry or... anything really. What could be seen of his face was perfectly schooled, a sharp contrast to how he looked when telling the two to get on with it.

His eyes, however, were darkened. Twin chips of icy, midnight oceans were glaring at the only place that he could unload his rampant emotions. He could always hope that the paper would suddenly ignite into flames.

Enforcing a tentative calm within himself, Kenny analysed the situation. He had obviously not endeared himself to some of his fellows in the academy with his 'sudden' loss of temper. Understandable, he too would stay away from someone that gave that kind of first impression, as would pretty much anyone.

But he had apologised and, in some small way, explained his current lack of good mood... Granted, as far as feats go that one barely amounted to anything. At least, that was how it seemed. Apologies coupled with a reasonable explanation while still condemning the action was often seen as both real and humble, an admittance of humanity.

That said, some would accept it while still feeling hurt, others wouldn't it work on at all.

 _Useless. Fucking. Tangent._

He refocused.

Perhaps he was merely seen as weak and potentially easy pickings for some bully? Or maybe it was because he seemed unshakeable in front of others judgement that it could be worth breaking him down for the sake of increasing someone's pitiful self-esteem...

Wouldn't matter regardless; apology or not, he was currently isolated from his peers, and he had to admit that it was no thanks to his awkwardness in entering already established groups, either. The odd ones out, the outcasts and the isolated were always all too easy to pick on, and as far as Kenny considered it, he could easily be called any of those things. And a few days of being mostly alone in a foreign school was apparently enough to cement him as such, add then in a 'violent' outburst and this kind of photograph could easily be a confirmation of psychopathy...

 _That would explain why some seemed to try to avoid me..._

Giving the teaching duo a quick glance from beneath blonde eyebrows, he also concluded that even a person that was supposed to be objective and unbiased would find this worrying.

He gave a humourless snort; this picture was merely a coincidence that happened at the worst possible time; a time where suspicions of his 'violent tendencies' were ripe.

"So," He stated with dripping neutrality, "this the part where I'm supposed to say that this isn't what it looks like and give an explanation that you're not going to believe due to the overwhelming evidence that will _clearly_ contradict everything that I'm saying..."

A near arrogant expression, one would use when correcting someone on a simple and easy to understand matter, one expecting to be sheepishly agreed with, marred his features.

 _Spite that fucking face…_

~-o0O0o-~

Condescending, but a damn well accurate way of summarising it, Takagami Ryouta reckoned.

The man didn't even need to look to the side to know that his senior teacher was boiling at the clear disrespect that the student had exhibited with that single sentence, an amusing thing in and of itself, but far off from the ideal way of handling the situation. Digging the hole deeper wouldn't help him get out of trouble.

That being said, he had noticed something odd with this kid, made very clear with the current situation. Having had to deal with teenagers for a couple of years now, and having had some bad informative years himself, he knew how most ordinary people acted when caught in a spot or attempted a lie. This kid was doing the textbook example of what most bad liars did, that being overcompensating with the eye contact in favour of the standard flickering gaze...

... like he was _always_ doing. Kenny Nilsson didn't seem to know, or plain and simply didn't care that most people naturally became uncomfortable with prolonged eye contact unless it was with a person close to them. Instead, he would stare away into your eyes unabashedly until you had finished your business, he had a organic reason to look away, or you averted your gaze away yourself.

Worse, his eyes were undaunting and downright steely as he stared the two down; clearly, he wouldn't be getting many answers by analysing it.

As for being put on the spot, Ryouta couldn't say one way or the other anymore: at first, he'd seemed defensive with falling into introspection, and while the way he the way he had spoken could easily be contrived as going on the attack, Kenny had manoeuvred himself into a position of neutrality. Well, as close to one as he could possibly get in this kind of situation, which in this case meant sounding utterly uncaring while clearly demonstrating that he knew the severity of the situation. Then he had the gall to _offer_ to provide an explanation for it rather than claim innocence and demand to be allowed to do so.

While none of this really made Ryouta question the necessity for intervention, it did perplex him how stone-faced and apathetic his student was in the face of it. He wouldn't have necessarily have called him calm, as he was obviously unamused and downright frustrated at the quiet allegation that the picture had brought to bear, but he was giving off the air of just wanting it over with, regardless of the outcome.

It was the fact that his student almost seemed willing to throw away his explanation if they didn't want to hear it that had him the most concerned, it was as if he expected them to not want to listen to it. That that would be his first assumption was more than a little disconcerting, not to mention that it was miffing to Ryouta, whom would gladly listen to an explanation, if a reasonable one did indeed exist.

Alas, Higuchi intervened before he could ask for clarification; "At least you understand your position."

 _Well, he sounds chipper…_

He almost audibly huffed at the sarcastic thought, though not in any kind of amusement. Higuchi being the typical traditional teacher that he was, didn't take a show of perceived disrespect well. At all.

"Well, with this I assume that we can finally get to the important part. Kenny-kun, why don't you tell us how this-" The aged man leaned forward and tapped his finger on the photograph, "- came about."

A blonde eyebrow was raised sceptically in Higuchi's direction, but he acquiesced, "I was out grocery shopping last night, and as I turned a corner on my way back, this guy ran into me. We both fell over, but the collision had him doing so in a way that had him hit the corner of the wall. A few others and I had to… massage his heart…? He had lost consciousness, wasn't breathing or have a heartbeat. That there, is likely me telling someone off for recording the situation rather than help out while I was trying to move the guy into a position to better help him."

 _Well, that does explain why he was mocking his own explanation…_

It wasn't only questionable; it was as clear an attempt to deflect blame as it got. It did also contradict what they thought they knew, though that wasn't at all surprising, it was in a way that was questionable at best.

Therein laid the problem in Takagami Ryouta's mind: Nilsson was obviously aware of exactly how bad it was, yet he had provided it regardless of that fact... There was no way that he cared that little about this…

" _Kenny-kun_ …"

Ryouta watched with near detachment as the teacher-student duo began what could only be described as a _very_ civil argument – that was a wording he didn't believe he would be using after the students show of disrespect –, degrading over time to become more heated as both parties' lost patience with the other.

Well, at least it wasn't him for a change, refreshing indeed.

That being said, it frustrated him how he would have to wait until Higuchi considered himself finished or gave up before he could get down to dealing with this on his own.

It did give him the chance to consider the situation, though…

"What will it take for you to understand that we are trying to help you! We can't do that unless you tell us what really happened. This is grounds for _expulsion_. Listen, we understand that you have been under stress-"

"Which doesn't excuse anything regardless of whether I gave the guy a beating of a lifetime or not…" The student all but growled out, eyes glaring in cold anger.

"But," Higuchi ground out between clenched teeth, "your continued denial of having any part in this is only making it worse for you. You don't have to be scared; we're on your side…"

"I suppose it's my fight or flight instinct taking over since I'm of half of mind to simply up and leave right this bloody moment. Your assurances are _truly inspiring_ me to stay, considering that. I. Didn't. Do. _Anything_!"

Ryouta jumped as Higuchi brought his fist down on the table with a loud thump, the motion coming out of nowhere, although he really should have seen it coming.

"That's _enough_! You continue to openly and subtly insult me, and you spit on my intentions. Were you never taught respect for your elders? You'll never be able to get anywhere in society with this kind of attitude, do you not understand that? Quit acting like a _child_ and tell us what really happened!"

Silence permeated the room after the outburst, uncomfortable and heavy.

"Speak!" Higuchi growled out lowly.

Kenny for his part hadn't moved in response to either the action or the rant; he didn't even look to be preparing to return the comment. Quite the opposite- " _Kenny-kun!_ " -his gaze was locked solidly into the eyes of the teacher, unflappable in the face of his ire. He even succeeded in looking calmer than before, his glare having been reduced into a subtle expression that somehow shouted disapproval and judgement.

Ryouta could note three things about the look: first of all, it was downright unnerving. That it came from a teen only seventeen years of age didn't detract from the effect. He wasn't even on the receiving end, and he still felt like he was being scolded. He may have been able to maintain eye contact on the basis of having been here during the argument and being an adult, but he doubted that many of the boy's schoolmates would be immune to it.

Secondly was the effect it was having on Higuchi. While the man had never been the most patient with those that acted with disrespect, he would usually keep himself together better than he currently was. But here was a young man capable of raising the teacher's ire by simply giving him a look. And as the teacher, who by now was clenching his fists in anger and glaring down at the student, grew more heated, the student seemed only to grow calmer as the long and awkward minute passed by.

" _Don't_ you look at me like that, the one that needs to learn respect here is _you_ , boy. If this is how you treat someone who's trying to help you, then…" The teacher left the sentence unfinished.

And lastly, it was _very_ evident that Higuchi had just fallen from standing in the eyes of the student, permanently so. Any respect that had been there had now been lost, a fact that wasn't lost on the man in question.

"Well? _Say. Something!_ " He demanded harshly, and the student finally decided to satisfy the irate man's desire.

"If I wanted to learn how to write, practice and do speeches in front of people, Higuchi, then I would go no further than Adolf Hitler, who managed to seduce a nation by using theatrics. I also know for a fact that he was a better painter than me, and he has undoubtedly given out more books than the vast majority of the people in this world. He was also an animal rights activist, sending people that broke animal protection laws to concentration camps, PETA would have liked him so long as they didn't have a political standpoint that went against Naziism.

And _Stalin_ managed to claim power over the Sovjet by planning and gathering support years ahead, this in spite of Lenin expressively stating that he shouldn't have power and the fact that Trotsky was effectively the second in command in the communist party. The former of which manage to incite and take control of a revolution while the latter managed to lead an untrained army against the tsardom and somehow win in spite of being outmatched and outnumbered."

Neither teacher was sure of what to do with this impromptu speech, or lecture, rather, seemingly coming out of nowhere and serving no purpose than to showcase historical knowledge. Still, Higuchi continued to silently glare at what to him was now not only a disrespectful student but also an arrogant one.

"Now, _Higuchi_ -" Kenny leaned back in his seat, and levelled a downright malicious look on the aged man, "what is it that you have done lately that makes you _assume_ that you are deserving of _anyone's_ respect, never mind my respect?"

The homeroom teachers' eyes widened in surprise at what was a clear comparison between what could be considered the human incarnations of the devil and the history teacher. If there were any question as to whether Higuchi was angry before, then there was no doubt now as the bald man's head turned red and blood vessels started to bulge on his forehead visibly.

"Now wait a minute…" Ryouta cut in before this could escalate further.

Up til now, he had decided to let the older man handle the situation, mostly because he knew that Higuchi wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise, and then take care of it as soon as the man was out of the picture. But the way things were going made him feel that it was neccesary to get involved sooner rather than later. He might not have seen eye to eye with Higuchi on most things, but that didn't mean he should stand aside and let a student badmouth the teacher.

At the very least, he needed to be the mediator.

He was about to continue when Kenny turned a sharp look his way, none to sublty telling him to keep quiet.

"I expect him to answer, Takagami-sensei…"

Once sure of his silence, he leaned back on the couch and returned his gaze to the seething teacher, giving him an expectant look.

The man didn't answer, and perhaps he couldn't provide one. Instead, he sneered and stomped his way out of the room, slamming the door behind him, undoubtedly heading for the principal's office.

"Well, this was a fucking waste of time…"

Ryouta watched in silent shock as the student grabbed the printed photograph and studied it, trying to find something to say in the wake of what he had just seen. Kenny didn't at all look like he had just been in an argument with a teacher, or gotten taunted as childish before acting in said manner by comparing his teacher's achievements with Hitlers and downright dropping the suffix as an open insult. Hell, disregarding the words he had spoken, he had looked like the mature one in the end.

"They really got me good with this one…" Kenny mumbled out loud, more to himself than to the remaining teacher.

"That was unnecessary, don't you think…?"

The student nodded, not taking his eyes off the photograph, "Indeed; downright childish, I'd say." He gave him a hollow smile, "It felt good, even if I generally don't resort to name calling. In fact, I honestly expected him to answer, even more so now that I've calmed down and had the chance to think through what I said..."

"Why's that?" Ryouta asked in curiosity.

"Because the answer is obvious," Kenny said simply, "though not as much so as I thought, it seems. Higuchi is a teacher, and I assume he's been one for a great many years… Now, how many students have been raised under his tutelage? A thousand? Two thousand? So many students must pass these halls that he'd have to have reached that number, if not more, by now."

He leaned forward, "All people are deserving of a modicum of respect, that much is true, but they are never entitled to more than that until they have proven themselves in the eyes of others. Those that save lives and those that aid or create lives stand on a higher ground than those of others, not by being better or being worth more, but on the basis that they have dedicated themselves to helping others.

Let me be cruel for a minute in this thought experiment: assume that there is a paedophile teacher that sexually harasses one person in every class they're in charge of. Assuming that they work for fifty years, and are never caught, and teach one course each year and each has twenty students.

20X50=1000. Minus fifty, 950.

Now, as horrendous as a teacher molesting or sexually assaulting their students are, it doesn't change the fact that the teacher in the example has given life-changing knowledge to 950 people, most of which now live healthy lives with likely families of their own. Some of the 950 may have fallen by the wayside, but it wouldn't have been any more a fault of his than any other teacher.

Now, misunderstand me correctly when I say that the last fifty could have committed suicide or have scars for life, but that the scales are still leaning in the guy's favour in the positive/negative things this guy have done. Now, you can assume that there were two or three in each class that he harassed, or you could imagine he only did it to one person every third year. But the point still stands that he's an asshole that has done some good; _a part_ of him is still respectable, after all. Put in another way: condemn his crimes and condone the good he's done for others."

He paused and considered what he had just said, "The point I'm trying to make is this, he could have simply said that he was a teacher and he would have won out. Hell, it could even have been construed as praise since he would have done it without causing suffering to others. Well, as far as I know…"

"You were taunting him back…?"

That had to be the most stupid and roundabout way of doing it that he had heard of. It had been effective, though, most likely because Higuchi was so used to being treated with the respect that his position demanded from the students.

Kenny shrugged, "I didn't lie, I'd love for Hitler to teach me how to catch the attention of the crowd and sweep them along, and I have to respect how Stalin had to manoeuvre to gain power, but both of them coming into a position of authority cost the lives of millions. To answer your question, though… In retrospect, it was also a form of test, I suppose. I wanted to see how he'd react, though it's not like I can see a way for him to have gotten out of that without losing at least some of my respect. Walking out may have well been the best answer, but I won't be looking to him as a figure of authority anytime soon."

"Do you have a problem with teachers?" It was a nagging feeling, just something that had been coming up during these last thirty minutes, but Ryouta sensed he was right on that assumption.

Kenny gave another shrug, "The short answer would be no, I have a problem with authority that I haven't chosen. The long answer would have to be yes. I was bullied throughout primary school, and most teachers did little more than take us into a room, have us tell the course of events and then shake hands in reconciliation. You know, _inspiring_ stuff that only works in daycare, not with teenagers."

It was without any real weight or care; the boy had apparently left it behind him long ago. But it was as much confirmation as the teacher needed.

The half-blood glanced to the photograph, still clutched in between the fingers of his student. He gave him a severe look.

"Did you do it…?"

Kenny didn't need any clarification, instead only sighing tiredly.

"No, I didn't. I was out buying groceries with the neighbour's girl when he ran into me and bashed his head open on the corner wall."

"You say a girl was with you?" he latched onto the new information.

"I didn't think it was necessary to mention it, this wasn't supposed to be a police interrogation that was going to have a followup investigation. At least I assumed as much, retard that I am."

"This could, as Higuchi-sensei so aptly put it, 'save you' from punishment."

"Yeah, about that: what would the punishment have been? Calling the police?"

Takagami shook his head gravely, "No, had it been in Europe that would have likely been the case. Here, however, prestige and reputation are far more important. The schools, this academy included, will not suffer a bad reputation. Several years ago a student committed suicide after having been bullied, but the school that the student had gone to had done everything it could to keep the blame from coming its way, even blaming the student for being different. Fights are seen as nothing to worry about. The previous school I worked at had teachers bullying and ignoring students that didn't conform to the group, and there is very little news of schoolyard violence, bullying or suicides caused by it in papers and on tv. This isn't because they are lower here than elsewhere, but because all schools try to keep those things on the down low, trying to make it seem like there are no problems… In your case, however, it happened out of school, there could be potential consequences precisely because of that fact. The biggest difference from here and elsewhere, though, is that where my friends and I were the rotten apples, here the entire bushel is spoiled. You either conform to the group, leave, or receive the harassment."

Kenny's face twisted in disgust before looking at him. Slowly, it untangled and became curious.

"So, why do you teach here?"

Ryouta hesitated for a second, uncalled memories flashing before his minds eye, before answering.

"… To hopefully keep others from making the same mistakes I did…"

~-o0O0o-~

Rome was drenched in darkness; the first vestiges of daylight having yet made themselves known on the east horizon. The Vatican City was not known for its nightlife, but there were still a few straggling tourists and pilgrims. Most common was the sight of the clergymen that walked the lit streets that led to the small piazza, most likely on their way to their daily duties.

Every so often he could see people with priestly garb with a few accents that distinguished them from others, or with cloaks of white covering their forms from view. An unusual state of dress, but not one he batted an eye at from his self-imposed posting at the window.

The room was quiet, broken only by the occasional flicking of papers and the weighted ends of the drapes hitting the stone wall whenever a strong enough breeze came through the opened window.

The room itself was a combination of old and new, solid squares of rock made up the floor, roof and walls, from which hung paintings of different men and women, most clad in the distinct vestments of nuns, monks, priests and bishops. A flat-screen TV was hung immediately to the left upon entering the rooms lone door.

A single green carpet was spread along the lengths of the room, from above creating a clear representation of the crux, at the middle of which stood a height variable office table, a laptop laying open on top. Filling cabinets encircled parts of the room, all but one firmly closed. Windows covered the left-hand wall.

"I assume your little 'retreat to the hilly countryside to reconnect with God wasn't as peaceful as first expected?"

Shaun Naidoo gave the judicial vicar sitting at the desk a sideways look from where he stood at the open window; "It was nice; a good respite from having to hunt down strays and fallen."

"… You always did enjoy the quiet life… So, what happened…?"

The African descendant grunted, "You would know that if you read the report…"

The vicar raised his brown eyes from the papers he was holding and gave the exorcist a harsh look, "I _did_ read the report, I'm _holding_ it here in my hands."

The man tossed the folder onto the table and straightened out in his seat.

"Sit." He said simply.

Shaun gave another grunt of malcontent but pulled himself from his imposed vigil at the window that overlooked the small plaza and moved towards one of the free chairs.

Seeing the man take a seat, the vicar ordered, "Report, Exorcist Naidoo."

"Sir. Upon arriving at St Elise on the 5th of November, 2015, and getting settled I began my Exorcist duties by making contact with the sanctified nun, Asia Argento, to profile her personality, habits and allegiances. I also began undergoing an SOP in the area, though I didn't expect to find anything. During the search, I had heard of sporadic disappearances in the woods and mountains surrounding the monastery and town, but I signed these up to tourists getting lost in an area that all looked all the same to outside eyes. My investigations of the area seemed to confirm this initial assumption: most of the disappeared were tourists, mostly because the locals largely refused to enter the woods, while the area itself was by any description peaceful. Not even my hunting tools showed any fluctuations.

This initial assumption of mine proved wrong, as a few packs of plated hellhound cats had taken up refuge deeper in the forest, creating territories that at times took them dangerously close to some of the small towns and villages that border the woods and mountains. As you know, they are extremely hard to track and detect using standard equipment. I was _lucky_ enough to happen upon one of their territorial disputes..."

His tone of voice said it all; he had barely escaped with his life.

The vicar flipped through the folder, reading aloud as he found the corresponding paper.

"'Request for hellhound cat elimination kit; acquisition for an R-89 with a scope and an accompanying bayonet of strengthened obsidian, a Raging Bull, 1600 rounds of three-six Cal snake killer hollow points, 800 rounds of four-hour Cal snake killer hollows… 30 Malakian gas grenades, another 30 with snake killer fragments and 12 anti-personnel mines with snake killer fragments'. You went all out, yet didn't call for reinforcements..."

"Let's just say that while I wasn't armed for the occasion, I was confident I would be able to clear out the area. That said, nearly losing my life once was enough reason to call in the big guns."

"And you didn't think of doing so once the fourth time came around…? Almighty, you _do_ take after my worst traits." The older man shook his head painfully as if he had just recognised a fact that had been pointed out to him before.

"Do continue."

"The time between making the acquisition and receiving the hardware, eleven days, was spent looking after Argento."

"It would be around this time that the two of you grew close, I assume?"

"Not close, per se... We built an accord and got to know each other, and I told her of my Exorcist status to gain further trust. Of course, most, if not all of the men inhabiting the monastery wasn't privy to this information. This only reinforced the bond that was forming."

"Shared secrets have a way of doing that, in my experience."

Shaun looked a bit uncomfortable, but pushed through it, "If I may speak freely, I was informed that the girl knew of our arm of the church, but she was surprisingly naive in her questioning. Even some of the uninformed monks seemed to recognise that I was different from other priests, but this girl was none the wiser until I told her of my status. It was as if she hadn't been told anything."

The vicar gave him an unconcerned look, "I wasn't part of the group who informed her of the existence of the different realms and the nature of our relationships with them. Whatever the reasons were, she may not have been made privy to anything beyond the most essential. Most likely, she wasn't considered useful enough to be given more information."

"I answered all the questions I found safe to give her."

"Inconsequential in this case, so long as you didn't give her access to the armoury. Continue."

Shaun coughed to clear his voice and retold the events of his five-month-long hunt of the tainted heavenly creatures, going into details at some points and brushing over the unnecessary parts unless asked to elaborate. Forty minutes later, dawns light was pouring through the eastwards facing windows.

"So it was a mixed bag; for all of my successes, all the creatures I managed to slay, it was still slow going to find the remaining three lairs... and that was when the reason I was sent there made itself known."

He shifted slightly in his chair, "I had managed to do a lot to understand Asia's way of thinking and acting, but there were still things I hadn't figured out, and the schedule for her walks was the most glaring."

"Her walks?" His mentor asked incredulously, "That should have been among the first things you should have figured out."

"You're right." He nodded, "So many things about the teen are predictable, I shouldn't have had any problems figuring that one out. But I hadn't for one reason or the other, perhaps out of respect, perhaps I didn't pay enough attention... But I had gotten a feel for it, her presence. And that afternoon she wasn't in or around the monastery. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, really; she would roam the fields and the nearby town whenever it struck her to do so. At the time, I didn't have the equipment necessary to continue my hunt, so I was stuck waiting for the next shipment. My fourth... as it were. At around five that afternoon, my energy scanner suddenly got a hit on a demonic signature, and it was slowly heading towards the monastery. It put me on guard, but I assumed that it would turn around and leave once the holy powers became too much for it. All the same, I prepared for a confrontation and moved towards the signature while keeping out of sight. I was hoping to keep the entire thing on the down low, but it was out of my hands. A monk, having met Asia on the way back, came running, shouting about a demon having seduced the nun. It started a commotion, and once she returned, carrying the devil's unconscious body, the monks had gathered to meet them. I'm sure I don't have to describe how the meeting went down..."

The vicar waved his hand dismissively, urging him to continue.

"Aside from whatever damage that that kind of negative attention could have on a young mind like hers, it also had the added benefit of waking the devil up, big surprise there. By that point, I couldn't detain him or start a silent exorcism. Worse than that, the impromptu witch trial turned as bad as it could get, discounting the violence… Have to give the monks that much credit, they didn't mess with him physically and simply shouted obscenities at him, even if that can't be classified as the most brilliant of actions to take. Either way, I intervened before it could go from bad to worse. He took flight the moment he saw me, leading me on a merry chase before I managed to ground him with the light gun. Still, he managed to get away. He erected a powerful barrier around him, capable of withstanding my light-based weapons and ported away. Finding no trace of him, I went back to detain and interrogate Asia."

"And then you called us…"

"Yes."

There was a return to a long silence, broken by the clanking of weights against the wall, the flickering of papers and the at times surprisingly loud scribbling of a pen on paper. The vicar took his last notes and read through the four new arcs of papers that had been filled with his writing, cross-referencing them with the written report of one Shaun Naidoo. Five months of life put to paper; profiles of the members of the monastery, of the nun Asia Argento, scouting reports, observation reports, recounting of major events and touches of minor events.

Shaun, seeing as he wasn't needed, got up and returned to the window, witnessing the suns path from barely visible above the rooftops to a quarter of the morning sky.

The long wait was punctuated by a tired sigh from the older man by the table, "I have all I need, this is enough material for her to lose her position as a saint and be banished from the church."

Shaun whirled around at the declaration, eyes widened in shock, "Lose – Banished!? Why? I have clearly stated that I found no reason to believe that she has had any contact with this devil, or any other before this occurrence. Within her mind, she was saving an innocent soul!"

The vicar messaged his eyes, "I believe you… And I believe that you believe her. The circumstances don't matter in this case, just as the monks believed her to be a witch because they found her able to heal a devil, the Vatican will see her as a traitor for doing so."

"She was well within her rights!" the African argued, "She can't be punished for having both the heart and the ability to heal _anyone_! Cease-fire treaty or not, both sides have an obligation to provide members of the other with medical aid and provisions should they be captured or found incapacitated."

"That very same act gives us the right to hunt devils and fallen angels that trespass upon our territory, the act that gives us the right to eliminate stray devils and do what is seen as necessary to protect our own. Acts that both the Grigori and Gehinnom have broken in the past."

"Their breaking of the treaty has no bearing on this, and you know it!"

"You're right."

His mentor's voice was tired as he said those words, but not from having been forced into a full night of work. It was a weariness that Shaun had only heard in the voices of older exorcists, those that had failed and seen massive losses of innocent lives as a result. The men and women who knew, or at least thought that had they done anything different, not made that one mistake, that they could have changed the outcome of the situation.

"But the church needs this." He urged

"Needs it…?" The exorcist breathed out in disbelief. "Needs it! Why would the church need to punish a person that in any other situation would have been given praise!?"

"The Rinmlomn Valley Treaty…"

Shaun frowned, trying to remember the specifics of the conference. It was by no means a recent event, its signing was older than many of the countries on earth, but it was an important one all the same. The year it was signed largely escaped him, but the overarching content of it did not: exorcists like him studied parts of it closely as many of the ground rules for when and how they were allowed to act were based around the contents of the six hundred page treaty.

The problem was, his memory found nothing that could connect the current situation with the writing on those pages. He'd need to think further.

"This is a political move, isn't it?" He frowned at the older man.

It was the downside to being a grunt, a field agent: you seldom knew the true scope of the politics that went on in conjunction with your operations. But the ramifications of losing yet another nun or exorcist were obvious to anyone, especially if they were powerful. It would be a hit to the moral, and people would start questioning either the leadership or the cause. Or worse, both.

And that was from the people inside or connected to the church, it could weaken the standing of not only their organisation but also of Heaven itself with other parties.

"We're losing credibility, too many nuns with powerful abilities have disappeared through devil involvement. We need to show the realms that we don't stand idly by and watch this happen. Treason will _not_ be tolerated, nor will the people who inspire it be allowed to go unpunished." The vicar told him severely, his gaze harsh.

"You want to use her as a scapegoat…"

"I trust you will be able to testify without your feelings for the girl getting in the way."

"Is- is this truly necessary? I don't believe that she would turn against us, she's too pure to harbour the negativity to do so."

"Perhaps, but the example has to be set all the same. If they show a wish to leave they'll be banished and left without protection, their 'friends' can take care of them. _True_ treason, however, will be met as it should. An enemy is best dead or kept under close watch. Saint Asia Argento, who have had pilgrimages made to her honour, will undergo an official and open trial. People will witness her fall from grace, and the truth will be closely guarded secret."

He took a breath, "I like this no more than you, Shaun. But this is for the best, Argento is well known, a celebrity within our organisation. If the best of us can fall, and if the best of us can be trialled, then others will be more wary of the threat that the devils pose. Less willing to follow them or the fallen. Shaun," He caught his students eye, making sure that he well understood the importance of what he was going to tell him, "this will calm down the radicals… it may prevent a rekindling of the war… and most importantly, it'll keep the church as one entity in a time where we cannot allow to be split. We can't afford to have a civil war on our hands. Not now, not ever."

The vicar stood up, hands upon his back and with a face of stone as he glared the exorcist down, "In the face of these facts, I now order you: _don't_ let your feelings for this young girl get in the way, report her as a heretic… tell the judges that you have reason to believe that Asia Argento is a witch."

~-o0O0o-~

The bottle made a shaky touchdown on the counter. In spite of having gotten used to the ache that came with overdone physical exercise, the shaking of tired muscles wasn't something he had gotten any greater control over. It could also be that the consumption of the lightly pee coloured, not to mention just as colourfully tasting, liquid was finally starting to catch up to him.

Worse, neither had helped to lift his mood; he was now tired, drunk and not to mention angry. The combination wasn't holy either way, only worsening with the fact that his stomach was working on little more than the fumes of what had been his lunch some seven hours ago. Despite this, he wasn't hungry. Or at least, the blonde was telling himself that. It was a great aid to him that the hunger pains had passed half an hour ago, even if the subject of his thoughts had remained.

Why was it that whenever something bad was about to 'scab over', as it were, that something else had to happen to keep you down?

 _Not true…_

He hollowly reminded himself, even if it sure felt like the world was out to get him…

Picking up the glass, he took a healthy gulp of the wine, drinking it down quickly to hopefully not have to taste every single drop of the foul-tasting liquid. Cassandra may have had 'fine taste in wine', as her husband put it, but Kenny really couldn't see it… A whiskey or, even better, a cold Mariestad would have been preferable, but when your choice of drink is limited to either red or white wine or champagne…

Now that he thought about it, he'd need to give them a call sooner or later. Later, if his memory served him as well as it normally did. Later, if his propensity for _not_ giving calls held strong. Sooner if his mood picked up…

 _An~d… when you think of calls…_

He stared blankly at an invisible spot on the tiles while the sound echoed in his ears with brutality. A short respite was allowed him, but twenty seconds later the sound resumed the torture.

Feeling like his head was filled with helium and threatening to carry him off into the sky had that been at all possible, he got out of his chair with little problem. Despite that, he frowned; it felt like it took a quarter of a second longer than it normally did for his body to recognise the commands his brain was giving it before moving. A cleansing breath had him focused enough to counteract that particular effect of the alcohol, even if it did little to remedy the feeling of emptiness in his head.

He got to the door before whoever was outside could press the button a third time. Kenny gave her a look before turning around and walking back inside and turning into the kitchen, silently inviting the neighbour mom to follow him. A near silent click from the locking mechanism shutting and the low shuffling at the door as she removed her shoes and put on her indoor slippers told him she had.

"How's Kaoru…?" he asked, taking out an extra glass from one of the cupboards.

"She fell asleep around two in the morning and had a restless sleep." Aiko entered his living room and gave a humourless snort, "One of the only times that girl seem to cry is when she has nightmares… How are you holding up?"

"Well enough; sleep escaped me, though. Got maybe a couple of hours in before I finally gave up… Want anything to drink? I've got coke, wine… water, big surprise." Leaning out to get some kind of confirmation he was met by Aiko's questioning gaze, the open and half-empty bottle of Vin Blanc in her hand held up with the label clearly displayed towards him.

"Which question do you want to be answered first? Why I've got it, how and where I got it from, if I drank all that by myself or if it's okay for you to have some?"

"… How old are you again…?" She asked with hints of suppressed disapproval in her voice.

"… seventeen…?" he answered after a short pause, not entirely certain if the answer was the correct one to give at this point. Sure, perhaps it was bad to drink, but he sure had not expected _her_ to be the one to point it out.

Regardless, he wasn't in the mood to have that particular discussion...

"... no wine, then..." Kenny mumbled as he put down the glass on the counter, almost having forgotten he had been holding it.

"You realise that you're too young to drink, right?"

He gave her a sardonic look, "Correction; I am, by law, considered too young to _buy_ alcohol, but most countries do _not_ have a minimum age for drinking."

Her narrowing eyes, not mentioning the lack of mirth that was normally present in them, told him that had been the wrong thing to say. Quickly reiterating the sentence in his head, he could see why. Not wanting to deal with the situation, he waved it off with a 'forget it', downed the last of the wine in his own glass and reached for the bottle only for Aiko to pull it out of his reach and take a step back.

"I'm putting it away." The swede stated irritably with a frown.

Aiko stood firm, "You don't have a problem, do you?"

He quirked his head at the concern in her tone, the frown turning into an expression of confusion, "Problem...?"

The woman lifted the bottle again and sloshed the contents around enough to be audible.

He looked at her flatly, feeling insulted at the insinuation of being an alcoholic, before snorting. Moving a couple of papers on the counter closer to her, he turned around and put his glass in the sink and started to wash the dirty dishes by hand to keep himself occupied.

"Disruptive behaviour…?"

Kenny grunted, "Seems that arguing innocence is a stupid thing to do here."

"Must have been an uphill battle… We got a call from your school, a Takagami Ryouta." The dark-haired woman mentioned in a faux offhand manner, holding the picture that he had smuggled with him from the guidance room.

"My homeroom teacher..." He informed, "Did he say anything?"

"Only that the incident was under investigation, but he didn't say anything about you getting suspended."

"Suppose he called before I got my just reward of five days of vacation..."

Aiko gave a snort at the blank statement, "Is that how you see it?"

The Swede gave another grunt, "Tomorrow I will. Now I'm just pissed at how the moronic imbeciles that call themselves teachers handled this entire situation. Minus Takagami-sensei... "

The distinction had to be made, out of principle if not out of necessity. Well, even Takagami could have handled it better, but his contribution was better than anyone else's in the matter.

He wished he could say that the teachers back in Sweden could have handled it better, but they mostly put the two students in the same room and let them talk it out, ending it all with a handshake… He had gotten into fights a couple of weeks later because of the continued bullying, had small rockets put in his locker and had fruits thrown at him. Back into the room they got, each. And. Every. Time.

Talk.

Handshake.

Out the fucking door.

Where was a cold Mariestad when you needed it…?

Aiko returned a loose focus to the papers on the counter during the long silence, during which the only sounds to be heard were the clinking of glass and porcelain and the pouring of water from the tap, but didn't really read the words. She gave the picture only cursory glance; she had no reason to believe the story it told.

"He had bleeders disease…"

Kenny turned around, looking confused. Noticing this, Aiko tapped a finger on the photograph to indicate the man.

"He also had weak bones. They had to do brain surgery to save his life. According to Touya, there's still a chance he won't make it: they have had to put a drain in his reconstructed skull and give him a blood transfusion, lest he'd suffer too much pressure to the brain or bleed out completely." She put the picture down and gave a humourless chuckle, "He's still stuck with a machine to pump blood for him, but he was breathing on his own when Touya checked. Even if the guy does make it, Touya says there's the chance that he's lost some physical functions due to the damage, maybe even suffered mental damage due to the blood loss. At best, it's only temporary…"

Touya had gone against patient confidentiality to, in some small way, help Kaoru be less worried about the event. It had helped… somewhat. She was still too young to understand the implications, and where an adult mind would find some solace in the knowledge, she was more curious about the non-gory specifics of the procedure and the fact that the man wasn't dead than a diagnosis.

Another, albeit much shorter, silence followed. Absent was the clinking of dishes, the rush of tapwater sounding all the louder for it. There weren't many thoughts flying around in his head after Aiko had spoken, he was simply going through the information subconsciously. No active thoughts needed for that.

Finally, the blonde answered with a grunt. There wasn't anything to say, really, at least as far as he could come up with. Instead, he picked up the bottle of wine and looked at the etiquette, some Italian phrase written on its front in cursive script and a few grapes in one corner, while under the watchful gaze of the Japanese woman.

"Did you know that the Romans used to wash their clothes with pee?" He asked offhandedly.

"No." she answered simply, the infliction of her voice making it clear she was wondering where he was going with the out of left field question.

"It's a natural…" He searched for the word, but couldn't find it. "… whitener. Wrong word, but I haven't learned the real one. In any case, they noticed how their clothes became much whiter when washed with pee. Brilliant as they were, they decided that they should put it into their mouths and whiten their teeth with it."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aiko's face twist in disgust, making him chuckle.

"Did not need to know that… Where are you going with this?"

He held up the little under half full bottle and backed away towards the sink, "I have never actually tasted pee before, but I'm pretty sure this wine tastes exactly like it."

He uncaringly poured the contents into the drain as he finished that statement…

~-o0 April 23rd, Saturday, 2016 0o- ~

"23rd of April, 2016. We have assembled here today to pass judgement upon the Saint, Asia Argento, who stand accused of practising witchcraft, as well as aiding, having relations and being in a contract with a devil."

-End-

And I'll cut it off there… partially so that you people won't have to wait, and partially so that I don't get stuck with a chapter that's 30 000 words long, which is what I'll wind up with if I continue writing to the end I had planned. Some of you may not have a problem with that, I certainly wouldn't, but it would set back my releases even more than they already are.

The Gremory group has appeared! Well, part of them, at least. And while some of them may appear OOC, cough Rias cough, this have been done for a reason, and she's in fact not OOC. Well, at least you haven't seen this side of her before

That being said, I would like for you guys to give a comment or two on the characters, anything really. Frankly, they are the ones that I have problems with.

Is Kiryuu in character?

What are your thoughts on the Sakaki's?

Does Kenny require therapy for his anger issues?

Where the hell are my internal demon that symbolises the readers and my critical self…?

No idea on the last one. It confuses me that I have gotten this far without it popping up, but perhaps it's enjoying the holiday season.

Oh, and one more thing; for those that wonder about the current state of the next chapter or whatnot, I post updates on my profile at the end/beginning of each month. Or when it hits me to do so…

 **Wordcount for this chapter: 19 952 words**


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